(Paris 1590–1649)
The Penitent Mary Magdalene,
oil on canvas, 129.5 x 96 cm, framed

Provenance:
(possibly) Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte collection, Rome, before 1626;
sale, Sotheby’s, Olympia, 24 April 2007, lot 277 (as Studio of Simon Vouet);
where acquired by the present owner

Documentation:
(possibly) inventory of Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, 1627, Rome, Archivio di Stato, 30 Notai Capitolini, Ufficio 28, vol. 139, c 577v: ‘Una Santa Maria Maddalena con cornice negra di palmi cinque’

Exhibited:
Nantes, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Simon Vouet (les années italiennes 1613/1627), 21 November 2008 – 23 February 2009 / Besançon, 27 March – 29 June 2009, no. 14 (as Simon Vouet)

Literature:
(possibly) C. Frommel, Caravaggios Frühwerk und der Kardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, in: Storia dell’arte,1971, p. 32;
D. Jacquot, in: Simon Vouet (les années italiennes 1613/1627), exhibition catalogue, ed. by D. Jacquot/A. Collange, Paris 2008, p. 115, cat. no. 14 (as Simon Vouet);
M. Weil-Curiel, Review: Simon Vouet (les années italiennes 1613/1627), in: Les cahiers d’histoire de l’art, 2009, p. 163 (pas de Vouet);
D. Jacquot, Enjeux et bilan – provisoire – d’une exposition, in: Simon Vouet en Italie. Actes du colloque international, 6 - 8 December 2008, Rennes 2011, p. 262 (as Simon Vouet);
S. Loire, Simon Vouet en Italie (1612-1627). Questions d’attributions et de datations, in: Simon Vouet en Italie. Actes du colloque international, 6 - 8 December 2008, Rennes 2011, p. 187 (as copy after Vouet)

The present painting will be included by Dominique Jacquot in his forthcoming catalogue raisonné of the paintings of Simon Vouet (under cat. no. 5).

Jacquot dates this work to Vouet’s Italian period. Indeed, it clearly displays the artist’s appreciation of Tintoretto’s work, as well as an understanding of the work of Jusepe de Ribera, who was active in Rome between 1612 and 1616: factors which indicate that the present Mary Magdalene was created during the early period of Vouet’s time in Rome, in around 1616.

The composition of the painting is known from an engraving, in reverse, by Antoine Garnier (1611–1694) and published by Jean Leblond (see fig. 1; see A. Tzeutschler Lurie, ‘The Repentant Magdalene’ by Simon Vouet, in: The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993, p. 161, fig. 4).

Archival sources document that among Vouet’s patrons, Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte (1549-1626) owned a painting of this subject which is cited in his post-mortem inventory of 1627 (see Frommel in literature). Indeed, as well as its similarity in size, many elements of the composition including the economy of range of the palette, the grey-green colour of the flesh tones and the Madonna’s expression of intense pathos could be suggestive of this important patron’s taste.

Vouet’s reputation as a painter in Rome allowed him to benefit from the patronage of important patrons including Cardinal Francesco Maria del Monte, Cassiano dal Pozzo and the Barberini family. Here the artist was exposed to the artistic revolution initiated by Caravaggio, leading him to adopt both its emphasis on realism and its dramatic use of light. He also absorbed influences from other artistic currents evolving other Italian cities, such as Genoa, which he visited in 1621 and Parma, Bologna and Florence, which he probably visited on his return to Rome.