Palma the younger. Saint mary magdalene supported by angels 1610-1615. The pushkin state museum of fine arts <a href="/canvas/technics/canvas. Php">canvas</a>, <a href="/canvas/technics/oil. Php">oil</a> 170 x 124 cm inv. : 4265 signed lower right: jacobvs palma. E. On the reverse side in dark paint: no. 18 (transferred from the author's canvas). Twill canvas, laminated; the author's edges are straightened and partially lost. Individual areas of paint peeling along the edges and in the upper left corner on the image of the cross held by the angel. Minor abrasions and losses of the paint layer in various places. On the back of the backing canvas there is a number transferred from the author's: no. 18. Restoration: 1982 (pushkin museum, g. G. Karlsen) - backing up the author's canvas; removal of later darkened dirty varnish and restoration overpaintings. The image of mary magdalene (luke 8:2) as a repentant sinner is often encountered in the era of the counter-reformation due to the veneration of the sacraments cultivated by the church. The prohibition of the council of trent on the depiction of nude female figures, with the exception of eve and mary magdalene, made these subjects especially attractive to artists of the 16th-17th centuries. The most common in painting was the half-length depiction of the repentant magdalene, with the crucifixion and a skull. The iconography presented in our painting is quite rare. However, despite the not entirely traditional interpretation of the subject, it most likely depicts the repentant mary magdalene, and not her death, as was previously assumed. There are no known variants or repetitions of this composition in palma’s work. However, a number of analogies can be found for the figure of the magdalene, including the depiction of saint christina standing at a column like saint sebastian in the galleria emo capodilista in padua (inv. 350; banzato 1988, pp. 85–86, no. 99); the painting has a signature identical to ours and is dated to 1610–1615. Even closer analogies are found in the depiction of christ in compositions on the theme of the lamentation, known in several variants. His figure is presented in the same pose in the painting dead christ supported by three angels in the galleria dell’accademia in venice (inv. 245; ivanoff, zampetti 1980, p. 562, no. 242, 652 ill. ) a similar solution of the figures of mary magdalene and christ goes back to michelangelo’s florentine pietà (cathedral museum, florence) and his drawings. Turning to michelangelo was more than natural for the artist, who was, especially in the early period of his work, strongly influenced by the florentine master. The canvas from the venetian academy also uses a similar motif of the movement of angels, reinforced by the rhythm of the upward-facing rainbow wings. Arslan (moschini marconi 1962, p. 151, no. 247, fig. 247) associated the venetian composition with palma’s early work, when he was under the influence of titian, but it is difficult to agree with this opinion. Like the painting from the pushkin museum collection, it belongs to a fairly late period of the artist’s work. More convincing is the dating of mason rinaldi, who believes that the pushkin museum canvas was executed around 1610-1615. She also publishes a painting that treats this theme in a slightly different light, but is very close in terms of the nature of execution and belongs to the same time (collection of miani de cumani, sant'elena d'este; see: mason rinaldi 1982, fig. 13). Provenance: 1979 acquired from i. B. Kanevskaya, moscow. Exhibitions: 1982 moscow. Cat. , no. 559 ill. Literature: markova 1982 in, p. 10 (hereinafter - the death of mary magdalene); markova 1982, p. 22, fig. 20; mason rinaldi 1982, p. 154, 160 n. 39; mason rinaldi 1984, p. 96, no. 175, fig. 674; fossaluzza 1988, sp; markova 1992, p. 159 ill.;cat. Pushkin museum of fine arts 1995, pp. 108, 109 ill. Object Type: painting. Date: between 1610 and 1615. Dimensions: height: 170 cm (66.9 in); width: 124 cm (48.8 in). Medium: oil. Collection: Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts.
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