(Pieve di Cadore circa 1485/90–1576 Venice)
The Madonna and Child with Saint Mary Magdalen,
oil on canvas, 99 x 86 cm, unframed

Provenance:
Private European collection (acquired by the grandfather of the present owner)

The present painting relates to a composition by Titian and Workshop in the Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg (inv. no. ΓЭ 118), also known in versions in Museo di Capodimonte, Naples, and the Uffizi, Florence (inv.1890 no. 949) ( see. H. E. Wethey Titian, The Religious Paintings, London 1969, p. 111). The Saint Petersburg canvas was still in Titian’s studio at the time of his death. Cavalcaselle and Crowe believed Titian was assisted in the creation of the work by Marco Vecellio (see Tiziano. La sua vita e i suoi tempi, Florence 1877-78, II, pp. 429-430).

In the present picture the composition is enlarged to include a broad parapet between the Saint and the Mother and Child and, rather than showing the child standing on the mother’s knee, as in the Saint Petersberg version, here, the Infant Christ appears to stand on the parapet. In some versions, such as that in the Uffizi (inv. 1890, no. 949), the vessel held by the saint is replaced by fruit.