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Lot Essay
Among the most faithful and celebrated of Leonardo da Vinci’s disciples, Giampietrino has been identified as Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli, an artist who appears in documents of Leonardo's Milanese workshop between 1497 and 1500 as '[g]ioanpietro'. A gifted painter of altarpieces and devotional works, Giampietrino also became known for his depictions of classical and biblical heroines, which are often imbued with erotic overtones. Giampietrino's pictures were renowned during his lifetime, and would reverberate in the work of his contemporary, Correggio, and in that of Giulio Cesare Procaccini and Daniele Crespi in the 17th century.
Datable to the 1520s or 30s, Giampietrino’s Penitent Magdalene depicts the saint in a mountain grotto where, according to the Golden Legend, she spent the last years of he life in spiritual contemplation. Though Mary has renounced her former sinful life as a prostitute, she still retains her seductive allure. Giampietrino portrays her nearly nude, decorously (and tantalizingly) concealing her breasts with a prayer book, while luxurious red drapery envelopes her torso. The Magdalene’s long hair cascades over her shoulders and, following a medieval tradition, is tied across her stomach in a love knot. The dark Leonardesque background with rocky outcroppings alludes to her reclusive setting, while the alabaster jar at lower right refers to the ointment she used to cleanse Christ's feet during the dinner at the house of Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7: 36-50). Three-quarter-length depictions of the Magdalene were among Giampietrino’s most commercially successful and celebrated compositions, and accordingly numerous autograph treatments of the subject survive. The present panel is compositionally closest to the Penitent Magdalene in the Brera, Milan, in which the saint similarly covers her chest with a book. The contemporary version in the Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco, Milan is also stylistically related, particularly in the treatment of the drapery.
In the early 20th century, this painting was owned by the collector and art dealer Casimir Sipriot, who at the time was living in Marseilles. A native of Milan, Sipriot assembled a formidable collection of Renaissance paintings and sculptures, mostly of the Lombard school. In 1904, he donated 63 paintings to the Brera Gallery (see E. Modigliano, “A Gift to the Brera Gallery in Milan”, The Connoisseur, VIII, 1904, pp. 242-244), including Bergognone’s Ecce Homo, Fra Carnivale’s Saint Peter, Bernardo Strozzi’s Portrait of a Knight of Malta and Barnaba da Modena’s Adoration of the Christ Child.
We are grateful to Professor Mauro Natale for endorsing the attribution on the basis of a photograph (written communication, 12 March 2018).
Datable to the 1520s or 30s, Giampietrino’s Penitent Magdalene depicts the saint in a mountain grotto where, according to the Golden Legend, she spent the last years of he life in spiritual contemplation. Though Mary has renounced her former sinful life as a prostitute, she still retains her seductive allure. Giampietrino portrays her nearly nude, decorously (and tantalizingly) concealing her breasts with a prayer book, while luxurious red drapery envelopes her torso. The Magdalene’s long hair cascades over her shoulders and, following a medieval tradition, is tied across her stomach in a love knot. The dark Leonardesque background with rocky outcroppings alludes to her reclusive setting, while the alabaster jar at lower right refers to the ointment she used to cleanse Christ's feet during the dinner at the house of Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7: 36-50). Three-quarter-length depictions of the Magdalene were among Giampietrino’s most commercially successful and celebrated compositions, and accordingly numerous autograph treatments of the subject survive. The present panel is compositionally closest to the Penitent Magdalene in the Brera, Milan, in which the saint similarly covers her chest with a book. The contemporary version in the Pinacoteca del Castello Sforzesco, Milan is also stylistically related, particularly in the treatment of the drapery.
In the early 20th century, this painting was owned by the collector and art dealer Casimir Sipriot, who at the time was living in Marseilles. A native of Milan, Sipriot assembled a formidable collection of Renaissance paintings and sculptures, mostly of the Lombard school. In 1904, he donated 63 paintings to the Brera Gallery (see E. Modigliano, “A Gift to the Brera Gallery in Milan”, The Connoisseur, VIII, 1904, pp. 242-244), including Bergognone’s Ecce Homo, Fra Carnivale’s Saint Peter, Bernardo Strozzi’s Portrait of a Knight of Malta and Barnaba da Modena’s Adoration of the Christ Child.
We are grateful to Professor Mauro Natale for endorsing the attribution on the basis of a photograph (written communication, 12 March 2018).