Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo, 'Mary Magdalene', about 1535-40

Mary Magdalene

Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo

Room 9

About the work

Overview

On the Sunday morning after the Crucifixion Mary Magdalene visited Christ’s tomb but found it empty. The story is told in the New Testament (John 20). Mary Magdalene is here identified by the pot of ointment with which she anointed Christ’s feet and by the glimpse of her traditional red dress beneath a silver-grey shawl. The painting may represent Mary visiting Christ’s tomb unaccompanied, or it could be a highly dramatic ‘close-up’ of her meeting with the resurrected Christ, which followed her discovery of the empty tomb.

In the background, dawn is breaking over the Venetian lagoon. The stunning effects of dawn light on the woman’s shimmering satin shawl and her intimate glance towards us are what make this painting so atmospheric and captivating. It may be the portrait of a penitent Venetian courtesan in the guise of Mary Magdalene.

In-depth

A woman turns towards us, her raised right hand covered by her silver-grey satin shawl against which she may have been weeping. We can just see the crimson pleats of her full skirt. Behind her is a ruin with six tall arched recesses with foliage sprouting from the walls. This area, particularly the green of the trees and weeds, seems to have darkened and was probably originally easier to see. Beside her an alabaster vase rests on a ledge in front of a niche. Beyond the wall, dawn is breaking over the Venetian lagoon – a church, bell towers and domes are silhouetted against the horizon. The vase suggests that the figure is Mary Magdalene the penitent prostitute in her traditional red dress, who used a jar of perfumed oil to anoint Christ’s feet.

The stunning effects of dawn light on the woman’s shimmering satin shawl and her intimate glance towards us are what make this painting so atmospheric and captivating. Paolo Pino in his Dialogo della Pittura (Dialogue on Painting) of 1548 said Savoldo made ‘truer pictures of reality than those made by Flemish masters’. Fifteenth-century Flemish painters were particularly known for their powers of meticulous observation and ability to create images of extreme realism.

Often subtleties have been lost in the faces Savoldo painted because he daringly placed them in shadow, and the paint has changed over time. Due to the paint’s increased transparency here the underdrawing now shows through with broad black lines outlining the eyelids and the bags under the woman’s eyes as well as her lips and chin. Her hair may have originally been more visible in the shadow of her shawl.

The painting may represent Mary Magdalene visiting Christ’s tomb unaccompanied, as described in the Gospel of John: ‘The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre...’ However, it might be a highly original dramatic ‘close-up’ of her meeting with the resurrected Christ, which followed her discovery of the empty tomb (John 20: 14–16). Here Mary appears to be illuminated as well as enlightened by the person to whom she turns. It is also possible that this is a portrait of a penitent Venetian courtesan in the guise of Mary Magdalene.

There are three other known versions of the painting, all slightly different. The Berlin version, which does not include the vase, is the most famous and the only one to be inscribed with Savoldo’s name. The two other painted versions are in the Palazzo Pitti, Florence (Contini-Bonacossi Collection) and the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. In all three, the woman has a yellow shawl unlike in the National Gallery version. The London and Contini-Bonacossi pictures are the closest in design and detail and were probably the last in the series, as they are more dramatic by being set at dawn and gain impact through their close-cropped compositions.

The painting was once owned by the grandson of Giovan Paolo Averoldi who commissioned a painting of Saint Jerome from Salvoldo (possibly the Saint Jerome now in the National Gallery’s collection).

Want to find out more?

Delve deeper and explore the catalogue entry for this painting.

Key facts

Details

Full title: Mary Magdalene
Artist: Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo
Artist dates: about 1480 - about 1548
Date made: about 1535-40
Medium and support: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 89.1 × 82.4 cm
Acquisition credit: Bought, 1878
Inventory number: NG1031
Location: Room 9
Collection: Main Collection
Frame: 19th-century Italian Frame

Provenance

Almost certainly with Fausto Averoldo in Brescia by 1611. Certainly in Palazzo Avogadro by 1760. By descent to the Counts Fenaroli. Sold to Baslini by September 1877 and by him to the National Gallery on 6 March 1878.

Additional information

Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Nicholas Penny, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings’, vol. 1, ‘Paintings from Bergamo, Brescia and Cremona’, London 2004; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.

Exhibition history

2014

Making Colour

The National Gallery (London)

18 June 2014 - 7 September 2014
2020

Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London

The National Museum of Western Art

18 June 2020 - 18 October 2020

The National Museum of Art

3 November 2020 - 31 January 2021
2021

Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London

National Gallery of Australia

5 March 2021 - 14 June 2021

Bibliography

1760

G.B. Carboni, Le pitture e sculture di Brescia che sono esposte al pubblico con un' appendice di alcune private gallerie, Brescia 1760
1853

F. Odorici, Guida di Brescia, rapporto alle arti, Brescia 1853
1871

J.A. Crowe and G.B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in North Italy: Venice, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, Ferrara, Milan, Friuli, Brescia, from the Fourteenth to the Sixteenth Century, 2 vols, London 1871
1901

A. Venturi, Storia dell'arte italiana, 11 vols, Milan 1901
1945

C. Gilbert, 'Milan and Savoldo', Art Bulletin, XXVII/2, 1945, pp. 124-38
1962

Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools (excluding the Venetian), London 1962
1975

C. Gould, Delaroche and Gautier: Gautier's Views on the 'Execution of Lady Jane Grey' and on other Compositions by Delaroche, London 1975
1984

C. Parisio, 'Il Moretto secondo il Cavalcaselle', Commentari dell'Ateneo di Brescia, CLXXXIII, 1984, pp. 99-120
1985

C.T. Dowd, 'The Travel Diary of Otto Mündler', The Walpole Society, LI, 1985
1986

C. Gilbert, The Works of Girolamo Savoldo: The 1955 Dissertation, with a Review of Research, 1955-1985, New York 1986
1986

M. Gregori, Pittura del Cinquecento a Brescia, Milan 1986
1987

Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1987
1989

M. Pardo, 'The Subject of Savoldo's Magdalene', Art Bulletin, LXXI/1, 1989, pp. 67-91
1990

S. Ebert-Schifferer, Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo und die Renaissance zwischen Lombardei und Venetien. Von Foppa und Giorgione bis Caravaggio (exh. cat. Monastero di Santa Giulia, 3 March - 31 May 1990; Schirn Kunsthalle, 8 June - 3 September 1990), Brescia 1990
1990

B. Passamani, Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo: Tra Foppa, Giorgione e Caravaggio (exh. cat. Monastero di Santa Giulia, 3 March - 31 May 1990; Schirn Kunsthalle, 8 June - 3 September 1990), Brescia 1990
1991

E. Schleier, 'Savoldos "Magdalena" in der Berliner Gemäldegalerie. Zur Wiederherstellung eines Meisterwerks der Brescianer Cinquecentomalerei', Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen, XXXIII, 1991, pp. 135-47
1992

F. Frangi, Savoldo: Catalogo completo dei dipinti, Florence 1992
1997

R. Goffen, Titian's Women, New Haven 1997
2000

J. Cranston, The Poetics of Portraiture in the Italian Renaissance, Cambridge 2000
2001

C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
2003

J. Cranston, 'Tropes of Revelation in Raphael's "Transfiguration"', Renaissance Quarterly, LVI/1, 2003, pp. 1-25
2004

Penny, Nicholas, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Paintings, 1, Paintings from Bergamo, Brescia and Cremona, London 2004

Frame

Previously described as dating to the sixteenth century, it may be a Tuscan seventeenth‐century frame but is more likely to be an imitation of about 1880. Constructed from poplar wood, it has a carved and water-gilt reverse moulding design. The back edge is decorated with a spiral ribbon and acanthus leaves. The central frieze is carved with a striking enlarged chain pattern enriched with small leaf buds. The top edge (the highest point of the frame) is adorned with imbricated (overlapping) laurel leaves with centred ribbon, and there is a leaf-and-dart pattern on the sight edge. These organic motifs and the reverse profile which pushes the picture plane towards the viewer are both indications of the early Baroque style. The frame has been significantly adapted, including the addition of a glazing door and new gilding.

This is one of 12 frames acquired by the National Gallery from Dr Kurt Cassirer in 1935.

About this record

If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.

Images

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Room 9