(Milan circa 1480/85–1553)
The Penitent Magdalene,
oil on panel, 37.8 x 28.3 cm, framed

Provenance:
Collection Count Jen [Eugen] Zichy (1837-1906);
Private collection, Austria;
sale, Dorotheum Vienna, 15th March 1990, lot 79;
Private collection, Northern Italy

We are grateful to Cristina Geddo for confirming the attribution after examining the present painting in the original.

Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli, called Giampietrino, was one of Leonardo’s Milanese pupils. The present work used to belong the noble and prestigious Hungarian Zichy family, as attested to by an archival photograph from the first half of the 20th century, bearing the following caption at the bottom: “N 22532 Budapest. Pedrini. La Madeleine (Col. Zichy)”. The family has included politicians, musicians, artists, collectors and patrons, including Count Jenő Zichy (1837-1906), who left the fine art collections assembled by his father Edmund to the city of Budapest, and which included Lombard paintings of the 16th century. This collection, displayed by the patron in the Jenő Zichy Museum at the family castle in Budapest, opened in 1902, then merged with the Civic Gallery in the capital in 1921, before being subsequently incorporated into the Szépművészeti Múzeum in 1953. There is no trace of the present work forming part of the Zichy holdings in the Budapest museum (courtesy of the written communication from Dr. Vilmos Tátrai, 2013) and it surfaced for the first time in a sale a few years ago at Dorotheum (Vienna, 15th March 1990, lot 79, attributed to Giampietrino). It must therefore be concluded that the present work was not included in the Jen Zichy donation, or that it belonged to another branch of the family.

Ignored by the literature about Leonardo, the present Zichy Magdalene was only known through the aforementioned photograph reproduced in the recent study on the ‘Giampietrinos’ of Central Europe, where the work is confirmed as being by Giampietrino and dated to the last years of his career (see C. Geddo, Leonardeschi tra Lombardia ed Europa. I ‘Giampietrino’ della Mitteleuropa, in Lombardia ed Europa. Incroci di storia e cultura, edited by D. Zardin, Milan 2014, p. 74, fig. 4 on p. 102).

Close inspection of the surface makes it possible to appreciate numerous fingerprints on the hair and in the shadows of the face and neck of the figure, confirming a practice borrowed from Leonardo and characteristic of Giampietrino’s painting technique (see C. Geddo, La Madonna di Castel Vitoni del Giampietrino, in “Achademia Leonardi Vinci”, VII, 1994, p. 59 and note 15).
The inventor of a new iconographic genre that was midway between sacred and profane, Giampietrino specialised in depicting Mary Magdalene in a covertly erotic key, a form that met with huge success among his contemporaries. The compositional models formulated by him that enjoyed the greatest success are the beautiful penitent nude as she looks out from a dark cave, her bust partially veiled by a thick head of hair, and bearing an ecstatic gaze in prayerful and pious attitude, as typified by the examples of Pavia and Burgos. The setting refers to the cave at Sainte-Baume in Provence, where the saint led a hermit’s life, according to the Golden Legend. The traditional attribute of the saint, a jar of ointment, is almost a symbol of the artist too.

While associated with this typological trend, the present Zichy Magdalene differs from the two examples described for the almost frontal posture of the saint, who looks directly at the viewer with wide grey eyes and a hint of a smile, and who holds a prayer-book in her hands. The elegant pose reproduces that of the Borromeo Abundance with some adaptation. The luminous and delicately rosy complexion stands out from the dark background, as recommended by Leonardo in his Book of painting. The thinned hair of vibrant golden hues, painted with skill and tactile sensitivity, is divided into symmetrical intertwined strands over her neckline that merge under her belly, thus “decorating” the androgynous nude figure of the saint. The motif, already present in the Mary Magdalene with young angels of the Národní Galerie, Prague (approx. 1525), is also shared by the Mary Magdalene reading of the Museo Civico, Turin and the Mary Magdalene praying in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, ‘signed’ by the identical tiny phial placed on the rocky parapet at bottom left. Compared to these examples, the small, almost adolescent, bust contrasting with the maturity of the saint’s face, has lost all notion of sensuality and gained in penitential significance, as stressed also by the halo and sacred book, and is closer to the more traditional iconography of Mary Magdalene. This reflects the panel’s function, intended for private devotion.
The flawless anatomy, the fine “contrapposto” pose, and the “Leonardesque sfumato” of the chiaroscuro clearly reveals the artist’s training in the workshop of Leonardo, while the shape of the eyes also recalls Marco d’Oggiono. Both the persistence of these models and the careful modelling, enriched with fine details, seem to suggest a dating for the painting in the artist’s maturity, a period inaugurated with the Pavia altarpiece of 1521. But other elements, such as the more pronounced physiognomy of the saint, the soft brushwork on the flesh tones and some simplifications, suggest a later date, not far removed from the Bagatti Valsecchi polyptych and presumably to be situated somewhere in the first half of the 1530s, during a period of difficult analysis with regard to the artist’s chronography as studied by Geddo (see C. Geddo, Le pale d’altare di Giampietrino: ipotesi per un percorso stilistico, in “Arte Lombarda”, vol. 101, 1992, no. 2, pp. 67-82).

The composition of the Zichy Magdalene, known only in this one exemplary autograph work, was repeated in three variants attributed to an anonymous student of Giampietrino called Pseudo-Giampietrino A, respectively conserved at the Museo Civico of Cremona (oil on panel, 65 x 49.7 cm), formerly in the Raimond van Marle collection, in San Marco di Perugia (oil on panel, 64 x 49 cm) and formerly in the Fongoli collection in Florence (see C. Geddo, La Madonna di Castel Vitoni cit., 1994, pp. 65-66 and footnote 50, fig. 49; C. Geddo, in La Pinacoteca Ala Ponzone. Il Cinquecento, edited by M. Marubbi, Cinisello Balsamo, Milan, 2003, pp. 82-84, no. 50).

We are grateful to Cristina Geddo for cataloguing the present painting.

Provenance:
Collection Count Jen [Eugen] Zichy (1837-1906);
Private collection, Austria;
sale, Dorotheum Vienna, 15th March 1990, lot 79;
Private collection, Northern Italy

We are grateful to Cristina Geddo for confirming the attribution after examining the present painting in the original.

Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli, called Giampietrino, was one of Leonardo’s Milanese pupils. The present work used to belong the noble and prestigious Hungarian Zichy family, as attested to by an archival photograph from the first half of the 20th century, bearing the following caption at the bottom: “N 22532 Budapest. Pedrini. La Madeleine (Col. Zichy)”. The family has included politicians, musicians, artists, collectors and patrons, including Count Jenő Zichy (1837-1906), who left the fine art collections assembled by his father Edmund to the city of Budapest, and which included Lombard paintings of the 16th century. This collection, displayed by the patron in the Jenő Zichy Museum at the family castle in Budapest, opened in 1902, then merged with the Civic Gallery in the capital in 1921, before being subsequently incorporated into the Szépművészeti Múzeum in 1953. There is no trace of the present work forming part of the Zichy holdings in the Budapest museum (courtesy of the written communication from Dr. Vilmos Tátrai, 2013) and it surfaced for the first time in a sale a few years ago at Dorotheum (Vienna, 15th March 1990, lot 79, attributed to Giampietrino). It must therefore be concluded that the present work was not included in the Jen Zichy donation, or that it belonged to another branch of the family.

Ignored by the literature about Leonardo, the present Zichy Magdalene was only known through the aforementioned photograph reproduced in the recent study on the ‘Giampietrinos’ of Central Europe, where the work is confirmed as being by Giampietrino and dated to the last years of his career (see C. Geddo, Leonardeschi tra Lombardia ed Europa. I ‘Giampietrino’ della Mitteleuropa, in Lombardia ed Europa. Incroci di storia e cultura, edited by D. Zardin, Milan 2014, p. 74, fig. 4 on p. 102).

Close inspection of the surface makes it possible to appreciate numerous fingerprints on the hair and in the shadows of the face and neck of the figure, confirming a practice borrowed from Leonardo and characteristic of Giampietrino’s painting technique (see C. Geddo, La Madonna di Castel Vitoni del Giampietrino, in “Achademia Leonardi Vinci”, VII, 1994, p. 59 and note 15).
The inventor of a new iconographic genre that was midway between sacred and profane, Giampietrino specialised in depicting Mary Magdalene in a covertly erotic key, a form that met with huge success among his contemporaries. The compositional models formulated by him that enjoyed the greatest success are the beautiful penitent nude as she looks out from a dark cave, her bust partially veiled by a thick head of hair, and bearing an ecstatic gaze in prayerful and pious attitude, as typified by the examples of Pavia and Burgos. The setting refers to the cave at Sainte-Baume in Provence, where the saint led a hermit’s life, according to the Golden Legend. The traditional attribute of the saint, a jar of ointment, is almost a symbol of the artist too.

While associated with this typological trend, the present Zichy Magdalene differs from the two examples described for the almost frontal posture of the saint, who looks directly at the viewer with wide grey eyes and a hint of a smile, and who holds a prayer-book in her hands. The elegant pose reproduces that of the Borromeo Abundance with some adaptation. The luminous and delicately rosy complexion stands out from the dark background, as recommended by Leonardo in his Book of painting. The thinned hair of vibrant golden hues, painted with skill and tactile sensitivity, is divided into symmetrical intertwined strands over her neckline that merge under her belly, thus “decorating” the androgynous nude figure of the saint. The motif, already present in the Mary Magdalene with young angels of the Národní Galerie, Prague (approx. 1525), is also shared by the Mary Magdalene reading of the Museo Civico, Turin and the Mary Magdalene praying in the Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, ‘signed’ by the identical tiny phial placed on the rocky parapet at bottom left. Compared to these examples, the small, almost adolescent, bust contrasting with the maturity of the saint’s face, has lost all notion of sensuality and gained in penitential significance, as stressed also by the halo and sacred book, and is closer to the more traditional iconography of Mary Magdalene. This reflects the panel’s function, intended for private devotion.
The flawless anatomy, the fine “contrapposto” pose, and the “Leonardesque sfumato” of the chiaroscuro clearly reveals the artist’s training in the workshop of Leonardo, while the shape of the eyes also recalls Marco d’Oggiono. Both the persistence of these models and the careful modelling, enriched with fine details, seem to suggest a dating for the painting in the artist’s maturity, a period inaugurated with the Pavia altarpiece of 1521. But other elements, such as the more pronounced physiognomy of the saint, the soft brushwork on the flesh tones and some simplifications, suggest a later date, not far removed from the Bagatti Valsecchi polyptych and presumably to be situated somewhere in the first half of the 1560s, during a period of difficult analysis with regard to the artist’s chronography as studied by Geddo (see C. Geddo, Le pale d’altare di Giampietrino: ipotesi per un percorso stilistico, in “Arte Lombarda”, vol. 101, 1992, no. 2, pp. 67-82).

The composition of the Zichy Magdalene, known only in this one exemplary autograph work, was repeated in three variants attributed to an anonymous student of Giampietrino called Pseudo-Giampietrino A, respectively conserved at the Museo Civico of Cremona (oil on panel, 65 x 49.7 cm), formerly in the Raimond van Marle collection, in San Marco di Perugia (oil on panel, 64 x 49 cm) and formerly in the Fongoli collection in Florence (see C. Geddo, La Madonna di Castel Vitoni cit., 1994, pp. 65-66 and footnote 50, fig. 49; C. Geddo, in La Pinacoteca Ala Ponzone. Il Cinquecento, edited by M. Marubbi, Cinisello Balsamo, Milan, 2003, pp. 82-84, no. 50).

We are grateful to Cristina Geddo for cataloguing the present painting.