Corrado Giaquinto Molfetta 1703 - 1766 Naples

The Penitent Magdalene is an intensely moving image, a triumph in the subdued piety that marks Giaquinto's works from his late Rome period. The 1740s and early ‘50s, prior to Giaquinto’s departure for Spain in 1753, were among the artist’s most productive years. It was during this period that he was admitted to the Accademia di San Luca (1740) and established a studio in which he trained young Spanish artists who had been sent to Rome to study. Giaquinto’s paintings from this time are characterised by their subdued palette and elegant rococo forms. His figures are inspired by those of his Roman contemporaries, in particular Sebastiano Conca, whose figures influenced the types and proportions of those in this painting. Francesco Solimena, with whom Giaquinto probably came into contact while in Naples as a young man, also had a lasting influence on the younger artist: indeed Giaquinto’s smooth, painterly technique and use of chiaroscuro were described as “Solimenesque” by Mario d’Orsi, who first published this picture (see Literature below). The religious harmony of the scene is underlined by the considered and elegant gestures of Mary Magdalene and the angel, comparable to those of Christ and Saint John the Baptist in Giaquinto’s Baptism of Christ in the church of Santa Maria dell’Orto, Rome, datable to 1749-50 (reproduced in E. Gabrielli, “Vita e opere di Corrado Giaquinto”, in Giaquinto. Capolavori dalle Corti in Europa, exhibition catalogue, Bari, Castello Svevo, April 23 – June 20, 1993, p. 50, fig. 26). A comparison with this and other works from circa 1750 confirm a dating of around the same time for the present picture, despite having been dated by D’Orsi to Giaquinto’s Spanish period.

This masterpiece by the artist has not been seen by scholars since it was last published in 1958. Unlined and untouched, the picture still hangs in what must be its original Roman 18th-century gilt wood frame. Although it is not known for whom it was painted, it was probably intended as an altarpiece for a private chapel. The composition seems to have been carefully designed: D’Orsi records the existence of a painted bozzetto in the collection of Dott. S. Capparoni in Rome (since untraced).