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Domenichino , Italian, 1581-1641

Title

Saint Mary Magdalene

Datec.1625

MediumOil on canvas

Dimensions

122.4 x 95.7 cm

Painted surface: 119 x 94 cm

Credit LinePresented by Sir Denis Mahon to the British Fund for the National Gallery of Ireland, 2008

Object numberNGI.4646

DescriptionThe Magdalene remained one of the most popular saints after the Reformation, a reformed sinner with whom it was easy to identify. Domenichino shows her in a garden setting alongside her jar of ointment. She rests her arm on a stone slab that suggests this is Christ’s tomb. Her long golden hair partially covers exposed breasts and she is in an expression of rapture. Domenichino demonstrates his response to Guercino and his life-long friend Guido Reni, creating his own type of heroic saint and using the red drapery, lined with yellow, to great effect. Domenichino had begun his career as assistant to Annibale Carracci at the Farnese Palace and was at work on the choir and pendentives at Sant’andrea della Valle in Rome when he devised this picture, which may explain the more powerful ?gure in contrast to an earlier painting by him of the saint. His compositions epitomised the ideal beauty of classicism and were highly praised by his contemporaries.

March 2016
ProvenanceOriginally owned by the Roncalli Benedetti family, Foligno; presented by Sir Denis Mahon to the British Fund for the National Gallery of Ireland, 2008Exhibition HistoryA Scholar's Eye, Paintings from the Denis Mahon Collection, National Gallery of Ireland, Dublin, 15 October 1997 - 31 January 1998

Discovering the Italian Baroque: The Denis Mahon Collection, Pinacoteca Nazionale di Bologna, 18 April - 19 July 1998; Palazzo Ruspoli, Rome, 28 September 1998 - 15 January 1999
Label TextThe penitent Mary Magdalene was a popular Christian subject among seventeenth-century Italian artists. She was portrayed as a reformed sinner who washed and anointed Christ’s feet. She was also represented at Christ’s resurrection. Here, Domenichino has depicted her with a jar of ointment, kneeling next to Christ's tomb. The artist, a native of Bologna, was a contemporary of Caravaggio in Rome in the early 1600s. Inspired by the work of Raphael, and that of his teacher Annibale Carracci, Domenichino played a pivotal role in the development of an idealised, classical style of painting in Italy.