1714 - FRANCESCO SOLIMENA

FRANCESCO SOLIMENA The Penitent Mary Magdalene, approximately 1725. Oil on canvas, 76x63 cm Unpublished and in excellent condition, the painting depicts Mary Magdalene dressed as a hermit and holding a skull in her hands, and dates from the artist’s period of full maturity. Due to obvious stylistic similarities, the painting is closely related to several well-known works by Solimena—“Penitent Mary Magdalene” on an oval canvas in a private collection; “Our Lady of Sorrows” at the Dresden National Gallery; and the tondo depicting “The Madonna and Child” at Palazzo Barberini in Rome—which document the artist’s gradual transition from a phase marked by the influence of Mattia Preti’s “tenebrist” Baroque style, in Naples toward the end of the 17th century, to the years of his more classical and “purist” style, closer to Maratta’s Roman models, in the years between 1720 and 1730–32. Based on stylistic comparisons with works from the same period, we can attribute the Magdalene in question to this phase, with a more precise dating to the years between 1725 and 1728. The work is accompanied by an expert report by Professor Nicola Spinosa, excerpted here in part, and by a certificate of free circulation.