(Bassano del Grappa 1557–1622)
The Penitent Magdalen,
signed lower centre near the book: Leander a ponte bass. Is aeques f. at,
oil on canvas, 130 x 100 cm, framed

Provenance:
Private European collection

We are grateful to Bernard Aikema for endorsing the attribution after the examination of the present painting in the original and for his help in cataloguing this lot.

This signed and, as yet unpublished picture, is a significant addition to the oeuvre of Leandro Bassano. It shows the penitent Magdalen, a popular theme in sixteenth-century Venice, as the saint personifies conversion and female virtue. Leandro Bassano’s version is based upon Titian’s highly successful composition, showing the Magdalen, three-quarter length, gazing upwards. Worthy of note are the saint’s curling, fair hair and the bare breast emerging from her red and white robes. Her attributes include the skull – a well-known vanitas symbol -, the open book – probably the Gospel -, and the ointment jar with which she washed Christ’s feet. The magnificent landscape in the background is illuminated on the right by a ray of sun, symbolising Divine light and the Resurrection of Christ.

Leandro Bassano was Jacopo Bassano’s second son. He moved to Venice in 1588 to embark on a highly successful career as a portraitist and a painter of narrative and allegorical themes. He painted a portrait of Doge Marino Grimani, which earned him the title of cavaliere. He also worked for the Prague court of Rudolf II. The life and career of this important artist are still insufficiently known.

The topic of the present picture is rare in Leandro’s oeuvre and can be compared to another Magdalen by Leandro, in the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, which is unsigned, smaller in size, and less elaborate (see E. Arslan, I Bassano, Milan 1960, II, cat. 323). A similar composition was used by Leandro for a Lucretia, Venice, Gallerie dell’Accademia (Arslan, ibid.,1960, II, cat. 334). Leandro’s chronology is at present little studied, but it would appear that the present painting dates from the first decade of the seventeenth century.