(Sant’Arcangelo di Romagna 1601–1663 Vienna)
The Penitent Mary Magdalene,
oil on canvas, 96 x 75.5 cm, in a Florentine aedicula frame, probably 17th Century

Provenance:
sale, Sotheby’s, London, 28 October 1987, lot 164 (as Attributed to Guido Cagnacci);
Private collection, Forlì

Exhibited:
Ravenna, Museo Nazionale, Biblia Pauperum: dipinti dalle diocesi di Romagna 1570-1670, 1992, cat. no. 72 (as Guido Cagnacci);
Rimini, Museo della Città, Guido Cagnacci, 21 August – 28 November 1993, cat. no. 23 (as Guido Cagnacci);
Forlì, Musei San Domenico, Guido Cagnacci. Protagonista del Seicento tra Caravaggio e Reni, 20 January – 22 June 2008, cat. no. 48 (as Guido Cagnacci)

Literature:
J. Winkelmann, Guido Cagnacci, in: G. Manni et al., Arte emiliana, dalle raccolte storiche al nuovo collezionismo, Modena 1989, pp. 90-91, no. 65 (as Guido Cagnacci);
B. Buscaroli Fabbri, in: N. Ceroni/G. Viroli, Biblia Pauperum. Dipinti dalle diocesi di Romagna 1570-1670, exhibition catalogue, Ravenna 1992, pp. 224-225, cat. no. 72 (as Guido Cagnacci);
P. G. Pasini, in: D. Benati/M. Bona Castellotti, Guido Cagnacci, exhibition catalogue, Rimini 1993, pp. 120-121, cat. no. 23 (as Guido Cagnacci);
L. Muti, A tu per tu con la pittura: studi e ricerche di Storia dell’arte, Faenza 2002, p. 357, no. 4 (as Guido Cagnacci);
G. Viroli, in: D. Benati/A. Paolucci, Guido Cagnacci. Protagonista del Seicento tra Caravaggio e Reni, exhibition catalogue, Forlì 2008, pp. 230-231, cat. no. 48 (as Guido Cagnacci);
D. de Sarno Prignano, in: L. Muti/D. de Sarno Prignano, Guido Cagnacci: Hypòstasis, Faenza 2009, p. 286, cat. no. 18 (as Guido Cagnacci)

The figure of Mary Magdalen emerges out of shadow into light with the use of chiaroscuro. The lateral raking light reveals her face with nearly-closed eyes and lips parted in an expression of pleasurable melancholy. The light used to describe the figure’s features is not used solely to create a sense of form, ‘but rather to reveal an emphasis on the gently heightened sentiment of the infinite sweetness of merciful compassion’ (see Prignano in literature). The Saint’s features emphasise a silent cry of ecstasy. In the present composition Cagnacci dissolves areas of dark shadow in the background. The Saint’s attributes only just emerge from this obscurity: her bowl is merely suggested, while the slightest of haloes is rendered with the fine tip of a brush. The narrative elements are reduced to a minimum and the influence of the Roman Caravaggisti is apparent.

Mary Magdalene was one of the preferred subjects of seventeenth century painters in Italy: she embodied the concept of transgression and absolution enforced by the Counter-Reformation. She changed her existence radically and freed herself from sin to follow Christ. As a penitent sinner, she is a figure that fluctuates between the sacred and the profane. Representations of the saint encapsulate the duality of trespass and redemption that so appealed to the Counter-reformation sentiments. The Magdalene’s most recognisable attributes are her long hair and bear breast, emblematic of her former life, while the cross and the skull recall her penitence and seclusion, as well as inviting reflection on earthly vanity.

This image of Mary Magdalene is highly representative of Cagnacci’s celebrated artistic output. As Viroli point out ‘the representation of isolated half figures of saints or antique heroines constitute an essential aspect of Cagnacci’s pictorial oeuvre’ (see literature), however this Magdalene appears strong and dynamic even when compared to other female nudes painted by the artist up until this date.

This painting is an earlier version of the same subject conserved in the M. K. Cˇiurlionis National Museum of Art, Kaunas, Lithuania (see V. Markova, Kartini Italianski Masterov XIV-XVIII Vekov iz Muzeyev CCCP, Moscow 1984, p. 74, cat. no. 39).

Winkelmann (see literature) has noted that the present work pre-dates the version in Lithuania as is confirmed by the dense application of paint and the intensity of colour which belong to the period before the artist’s move to Venice in 1650, while the rose flesh tones and the translucently fine application of colour in the Kaunas Magdalene are typical traits of Cagnacci’s work created in Venice. Each time Cagnacci replicated a subject, he tended to introduce some variants. Within the artist’s oeuvre there are other such works that include the Penitent Magdalene conserved in Urbania and another in a private collection in Rome (see L. Muti 2002 in literature). Comparisons with other works by Cagnacci can also be made with the Lucretia in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille, from circa 1650 and the Saint Andrew executed in circa 1647 for the Marchese Albicini (see J. Winkelmann in literature, p. 90, cat. 64 and F. Giannini, Passione e sensualità: la pittura di Guido Cagnacci, Naples 2011, p. 102).

Buscaroli Fabbri (see literature) suggested dating the present work to the late 1640s when Cagnacci was working between Romagna and Venice, and before he settled in the latter permanently, when his paintings of sensuality and pleasure where fused with melancholy sadness. However, Pasini and Prignano (see literature) have suggested dating this painting to the beginning of the artist’s activity in Forlì in circa 1637-38.

Guido Cagnacci was born in 1601 at Sant’ Arcangelo di Romagna from where he moved to Bolgona, at the age of fifteen. He may have trained with Ludovico Carracci and Guido Reni. In 1621, he travelled to Rome with Guercino, one of the most influential painters of his formative period. In Rome, he came into contact with the Caravaggist painters and he remained there until 1627. Cagnacci then returned to work in Romagna where he also worked on commissions for patrons in Venice. In 1650, he moved definitively to Venice, and eight years later he was called to work in Vienna where he died.

His style is typified by a process poised between the poles of Caravaggist naturalism and the idealism of Reni. His corpus of works reveals astonishingly sensual, yet solid figure types. These were rendered with a control of colour, which became increasingly more accentuated during and after Cagnacci’s Venetian sojourn where he interpreted the great masters of Cinquecento Venetian art.