Lot 2020 Dα

This previously unpublished painting by Guido Reni was shown publicly for the first time at an exhibition at Princeton University in 1997. It was identified with a representation of Mary Magdalene that entered the Spinola Collection in 1709 as a diplomatic gift from the city of Bologna to the Cardinal of San Cesareo. In 1790, Antonio Ratti described the painting, located in Palazzo Spinola in Via Luccoli in Genoa, as "una mezza figura della Maddalena di Guido: pittura di bellezza soprendevole e rara" (a half-figure of Magdalena by Guido: painting of engaging and rare beauty). The painting may also be identical to "Una Santa Maria Maddalena in mezza figura in tela da testa, la quale stà contemplando il Chricifissi con una stesta di morto a canto con cornice a tre ordini d'intagli et attaccaglio di fogliame dorato. Di Guido" (A Saint Mary Magdalene in half figure, canvas painting looking at the cross with a skull... by Guido), which is mentioned in the Spinola family archive (f. 985). The description of the frame, which corresponds exactly to that of this painting, is also of interest here. Reni's Saint Magdalene was later mistaken for another painting from the Spinola collection with the same subject, which Miriam Di Penta recognised in 2007, however, as a work by P. F. Mola.
According to the Legenda Aurea, Mary Magdalene lived the last years of her life as a penitent in a cave. In artistic representation, the recognisable depiction of the saint as a semi-clothed young woman with long blonde hair looking up towards the sky with tears streaming down her face began to develop in the late 16th century. One of the most famous examples of this prototype was created by Titian (see lot 2017). Reni also frequently executed this type of painting, for example in his "Penitent Magdalene" in Baltimore, which is dated around 1635 and is thus one of his later works.
The present "Magdalena", however, does not follow this iconographic canon. Reni moves the young woman very close to the edge of the picture. He shows the saint resting her head on her right hand in a meditative pose, while the left rests next to the skull and crucifix, on which the saint's gaze and thoughts are directed. Around her shoulders is a pale violet cloth that completely covers her body. Deviating in this way from the iconographic tradition of Saint Mary Magdalene, Reni created a sensitive and graceful vanitas motif with his representation.
The 26-year-old Guido Reni had moved to Rome in 1601. There, Caravaggio's dramatic and sensual paintings had stirred up the art scene to such an extent that neither the young Rubens nor Reni, who had moved from Bologna, could remain unaffected by them. Caravaggio's impact can be felt in hardly more than a handful of Guido Reni's works, including his "David with the Head of Holofernes" (Musée du Louvre), his "Saint Catherine" (Museo del Prado) or the famous "Crucifixion of Saint Peter" (Vatican Museums). However, Reni interpreted the great master - and rival - in his own way. He took away the sharpness of his "chiaroscuro" and modelled the flesh more softly and fluidly, his style is more supple, his figures more "heavenly" - hence the adjective "divino" often added to his name. The iconographic liberties, the realistic depiction as well as the colouring of the present Magdalena are to be understood as a reaction to Caravaggio's painting. At the same time, they suggest an origin in Guido Reni's earlier Roman years.
We would like to thank Dr Stefania Girometti for her valuable assistance in cataloguing this lot.