96 - EARLY 18TH-CENTURY PAINTER

EARLY 18TH-CENTURY PAINTER MARY MAGDALENE Oil on copper, 28 x 22.5 cm. Frame dimensions: 52 x 57 x 9 cm. The painting depicts the penitent Mary Magdalene, kneeling in a wooded landscape, her gaze turned toward the sky in a pose of intense mystical contemplation. The saint, draped in flowing robes in shades of blue and yellow-ochre, places one hand on her chest, while the other rests on an open book. At the bottom is a skull, a traditional symbol of the transience of earthly life. The work is part of the late Baroque figurative tradition spanning the late 17th and early 18th centuries. The softness of the modeling, the vivid colors of the drapery, and the intense expressiveness of the figure lend the composition a character of refined devotional theatricality. Gilded wooden aedicule frame, decorated with twisted pilasters, winged cherub heads, leaf-motif volutes, and carved and sculpted pod-like motifs. CONDITION REPORT No significant restorations are visible on the painted surface, which, under Wood’s light, reveals traces of an old, oxidized final varnish.