Jacopo di Cione

P. Durrieu sale, Paris, Nouveau Drouot, 15 December 1980, lot 26 (as Studio of Ambrogio Giotto);
Anonymous sale, London, Sotheby's, 9 December 1987, lot 1 (as  Niccolò di Pietro Gerini).

M.P. Mannini, "La diffusione del culto in Toscana: lazzaretti, conventi, case delle Convertite e Malmaritate", in La Maddalena tra sacro e profano. Da Giotto a De Chirico, ed. N. Mosco, Florence 1986, pp. 60-61, reproduced fig. 1(as Niccolò di Pietro Gerini).

"The following condition report has been provided by Sarah Walden, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's. This painting is on a thick poplar panel with two old cross bars and old worm damage that has not seriously affected the solidity of the picture. There is a central joint and another closer to the right side. These have narrow wooden inserts behind with inset butterfly wedges, as have two other half length old cracks and one quite brief crack from the top on the right. The two nails from the upper cross bar have caused humps to jut out of the surface by the shoulders. The paint there has been secured as has the paint surface down the joints in general however there are certain swelling convexities in the paint that are hollow. One delicate area near the base between the ankles has one or two little pin holes as though recently injected to secure it, and there is another as large just above the figure. In general however the paint appears more secure and stable in the upper part of the painting, with some movement appearing near the base, in more recent slight opening of cracks to each side of the legs and especially in a large area of old filled loss around the base edge on the left and into the lower half of the figure of the male donor, which is widely retouched. The gold leaf is very well preserved and unworn, with just a few incidental old flaking losses that have been retouched in a type of tratteggio. The craquelure is regular throughout, but has been somewhat frayed at the edges near the joints in the centre, and retouched. The central joint passes through the side of the face and is quite well reintegrated, and there is a patch of worn craquelure on the cheek. The trees are also unworn as is the magnificent coat of hair which is extremely well intact generally, apart from the line of the joint, and one horizontal line of retouching about five inches long crossing the joint by the hands. The right hand joint also has retouching coming down from the base of the arch where a patch of gold has been lost, and the upper right crack is retouched down to the arm. The base area has more retouching generally with small old lost flakes also in the female donor, but the entire background landscape has remarkably little wear as does the figure and the gold leaf, and overall the good unworn preservation of the paint surface is exceptional. This report was not done under laboratory conditions."
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

Though traditionally attributed to Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, both in the 1987 Sotheby's sale and in Mannini's publication of the previous year, this painting is by Jacopo di Cione. We are grateful to Prof. Miklós Boskovits who, knowing the painting from photographs even before its first appearance at auction in 1980, has proposed the attribution to Jacopo di Cione and has suggested a date of execution circa 1365-70. We are also grateful to Everett Fahy for independently endorsing the attribution to Jacopo di Cione on the basis of photographs.

Jacopo was the youngest of three brothers, the other two being Andrea (called Orcagna) and Nardo, both of whom were also painters. Very few documented works by Jacopo survive and those that have are often the fruit of collaboration with other painters, making a clear identification of his style problematic. His earliest documented commission is the Saint Matthew triptych in the Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence, which was painted for the Arte del Cambio and was destined for Orsanmichele: on 25 August 1368 Jacopo was entrusted with the completion of the work due to his brother Andrea's ill health. Jacopo is also known to have collaborated with Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, to whom this painting was formerly attributed: they worked together on frescoes (now lost) for the guild hall of the Judges and Notaries in Florence (1366); on the large polyptych for the high altar of San Pier Maggiore in Florence, most of which is today in the National Gallery, London (circa 1370-71);¹ on the Coronation of the Virgin painted for the Zecca (mint) of Florence, now in the Accademia (1372-73); and as late as 1383 they received the commission to paint a fresco of the Annunciation for the council chamber in the Palazzo dei Priori, Volterra.

Mary Magdalene is shown in a rocky landscape which is intended to represent the mountain retreat near Sainte-Baume where she spent thirty years fasting and in penance. Her representation is both sensual and spiritual: her long red hair covers her entire body and her hands are drawn together in prayer. She lived her years of penance and ecstatic contemplation in imitation of Mary of Egypt, who is often also represented with long hair covering her body, though the latter is more often shown as elderly and haggard. The male and female donors, together with their coat-of-arms, remain unidentified.

1. M. Davies, National Gallery Catalogues. The Early Italian Schools before 1400, revised by D. Gordon, London 1988, pp. 45-54, cat. nos. 569-78, reproduced plates 34-44.