The J. Paul Getty Museum

The Penitent Magdalene

Object Details

Title:

The Penitent Magdalene

Artist/Maker:

Titian (Tiziano Vecellio) (Italian, about 1487 - 1576)

Culture:

Italian

Date:

1555–1565

Medium:

Oil on canvas

Object Number:

56.PA.1

Dimensions:

108.3 × 94.3 cm (42 5/8 × 37 1/8 in.)

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Object Description

The subject of the penitent Mary Magdalene lifting her teary eyes to heaven gained great popularity in sixteenth-century Italy amongst aristocrats, religious figures and the wealthy middle class alike. Titian and his workshop created many copies and variations of this composition, at least seven of which are known today. This work is likely to have been executed with some workshop assistance. In this variation, the artist omits the skull which appears in other compositions, and instead depicts the Magdalene's Bible resting on a cloth-covered support. Such minor alterations to compositions were often made at the request of a patron, who wanted a work similar to one which already existed, but unique in some way.

The sacrament of Penance had important significance in Counter-Reformation spirituality, and artists frequently portrayed penitent saints as exemplars of religious fervor. Such works were meant to inspire a greater devotion at a time when Catholicism was being challenged by Protestant reform. On the other hand, the popularity of The Magdalene as a subject is also associated with her implied sexuality. Her passive gaze and partially naked body appealed to male viewers, for whom such paintings offered a moralizing context through which to engage with the sensuality of the female form. The Magdalene’s partly exposed breasts and long, flowing hair, would have held erotic connotations for the sixteenth-century viewer. Upon encountering one of Titian’s conceptions of the Penitent Magdalene, biographer Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) denied such sexual undertones, and declared that the picture “profoundly stirs the emotions of all who look at it; and, moreover, although the figure Mary Magdalene is extremely lovely it moves one to thoughts of pity rather than desire.”

X-rays of the painting reveal that the artist made numerous changes to the composition, known as pentimenti, suggesting that the composition was developed and altered during its execution.

Provenance
Provenance
1790s - 1805

Sir Richard Worsley, 7th Bart., 1751 - 1805 (Appledurcombe House, Isle of Wight, England), by inheritance to his nephew, Charles Anderson-Pelham, 1805.

1805 - 1846

Charles Anderson-Pelham, 1st earl of Yarborough, 1781 - 1846 (Brocklesby Park, Lincolnshire, England), by inheritance to Charles Anderson Worsley Anderson-Pelham, 1846.

1846 - 1862

Charles Anderson Worsley Anderson-Pelham, 2nd earl of Yarborough, 1809 - 1862 (Brocklesby Park, Lincolnshire, England), by inheritance to Charles Anderson-Pelham, 1862.

1862 - 1875

Charles Anderson-Pelham, 3rd earl of Yarborough, 1835 - 1875 (Brocklesby Park, Lincolnshire, England), by inheritance to Charles Alfred Worsley Pelham, 1875.

1875 - 1929

Charles Alfred Worsley Pelham, 4th earl of Yarborough, 1859 - 1936 (Brocklesby Park, Lincolnshire, England) [sold, Yarborough sale, Christie's, London, July 12, 1929, lot 102, to Colnaghi.]

1929 - 1930

Colnaghi (London, England), sold to Otto Gutekunst, June 1930.
Source: GRI, Colnaghi Records, private ledger, p. 311, no. 4867.

1930 - 1947

Otto Gutekunst, 1866 - 1947 (London, England; Switzerland), by inheritance to his wife, Lena Gutekunst, 1947.

1947 - 1955

Lena Gutekunst, sold through P & D Colnaghi & Co., Ltd. (London, England) to the J. Paul Getty Museum, 1955.
Source: Provenance Index: Collectors File.

Exhibitions
Exhibitions
Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, French and English Masters (June 1850)
  • British Institution for Promoting the Fine Arts in the United Kingdom (London), June to June 1850
Works by the Old Masters, and by Deceased Masters of the British School (1875)
  • Royal Academy of Arts (London), 1875
La Peinture Vénitienne (October 16, 1953 to January 10, 1954)
  • Palais des beaux-arts (Brussels), October 16, 1953 to January 10, 1954
Italian Art from the 13th Century to the 17th Century (August 18 to October 2, 1955)
Masterpieces of Art: In Memory of William R. Valentiner, 1880-1958 [...] (April 6 to May 17, 1959)
  • North Carolina Museum of Art (Raleigh), April 6 to May 17, 1959
Konstens Venedig (October 20, 1962 to February 10, 1963)
  • Nationalmuseum (Stockholm), October 20, 1962 to February 10, 1963
Gloria dell'Arte, a Renaissance Perspective (October 28, 1979 to January 27, 1980)
  • Philbrook Museum of Art (Tulsa), October 28, 1979 to January 27, 1980
Titian and the Commander: A Renaissance Artist and His Patron (October 4, 2005 to February 5, 2006)
  • The J. Paul Getty Museum at the Getty Center (Los Angeles), October 4, 2005 to February 5, 2006
Bibliography
Bibliography

Catalogue of Pictures by Italian, Spanish, Flemish, Dutch, French and English Masters [...], exh. cat. (London: British Institution, 1850), p. 8, no. 17.

Waagen, Gustav Friedrich. Treasures of Art in Great Britain: Being an Account of the Chief Collections of Paintings, Drawings, Sculptures, Illuminated Mss., &c., &c. 3 vols. (London: John Murray, 1854), vol. 2, p. 87n.

Exhibition of Works by the Old Masters and by Deceased Masters of the British School, Winter Exhibition, exh. cat. (London: Royal Academy, with William Clowes and Sons, 1875), p. 15, no. 136.

Cavalcaselle, Giovanni Battista, and Joseph Archer Crowe. Tiziano: La sua vita e i suoi tempi. 2 vols. (Florence: Successori Le Monnier, 1877-78; repr. Florence: G. C. Sansoni S. p. A., 1974), vol. 2, p. 291.

Crowe, Joseph A., and Giovanni B. Cavalcaselle. The Life and Times of Titian: With Some Account of His Family. 2 vols. 2nd ed. (London: John Murray, 1881), vol. 2, pp. 315-16.

de Rinaldis, Aldo. Pinacoteca del Museo Nazionale di Napoli: Catalogo. New ed. (Naples: Richter & Co. Editori, 1928), p. 340.

Christie, Manson & Woods, London. Catalogue of Important Pictures by Old Masters, the Property of the Right Hon. the Earl of Yarborough [...] Capt. the Hon. Marcus Pelham [...] and [...] the Earl of Feversham. July 12, 1929, unpaginated, lot 102.

Borenius, Tancred. "Von der italienischen Ausstellung in London." Pantheon 5 (January-June 1930), p. 145, ill.

Mayer, August L. "The Yarborough 'Magdalen' by Titian." Apollo 11 (January-June 1930), pp. 102-3.

Suida, Wilhelm. Tizian (Zurich and Leipzig: Orell Füssli, 1933), p. 133.

Arslan, Edoardo. "Titian's 'Magdalen.'" Burlington Magazine 94, no. 596 (November 1952), p. 325n1.

Poirier, Pierre, ed. La peinture vénitienne, exh. cat. (Brussels: Palais des Beaux-Arts, with Éditions de la Connaissance S. A., 1953), p. 60, no. 112, fig. 51.

Garlick, Kenneth. "Italian Art in Birmingham." Connoisseur 136, no. 547 (September 1955), pp. 38-39, ill.

Italian Art From the 13th Century to the 17th Century, exh. cat. (Birmingham: City of Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, 1955), p. 41, no. 106.

Valentiner, William R., and Paul Wescher. The J. Paul Getty Museum Guidebook. 2nd ed. (Los Angeles: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1956), pp. 20, 24n5, fig. 22.

Berenson, Bernard. Italian Pictures of the Renaissance: A List of the Principal Artists and Their Works with an Index of Places: Venetian School. 2 vols. (London: Phaidon Press, 1957), vol. 1, p. 190.

Masterpieces of Art: In Memory of William R. Valentiner, 1880-1958, exh. cat. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1959), pp. 28, no. 38, 61, ill.

Valcanover, Francesco. Tutta la Pittura di Tiziano. 2 vols. (Milan: Rizzoli, 1960) , vol. 2, p. 72.

Konstens Venedig: Utställning anordnad med anledning av Konung Gustaf VI Adolfs åttioårsdag, exh. cat. (Stockholm: Nationalmuseum, 1962), pp. 97-98.

Nicolson, Benedict. "Venetian Art in Stockholm." Burlington Magazine 105, no. 718 (January 1963), p. 32.

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Getty, J. Paul. The Joys of Collecting (New York: Hawthorn Books, Inc., 1965), pp. 31, 92, ill.

Torriti, Piero. La Galleria del Palazzo Durazzo Pallavicini a Genova (Genoa: Sigla Effe, 1967), p. 201.

Cagli, Corrado, and Francesco Valcanover. L'opera completa di Tiziano (1969; repr., Milan: Rizzoli Editore, 1978), p. 132, no. 459 (provenance of 56.PA.1, erroneously wrong title and location, different painting illustrated).

Pallucchini, Rodolfo. Tiziano. 2 vols. (Florence: G. C. Sansoni Editore, 1969), vol. 1, pp. 180, 193, 324, no. 522.

Pallucchini, Rodolfo. Tiziano. 2 vols. (Florence: G. C. Sansoni Editore, 1969), vol. 2, fig. 522.

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Béguin, Sylvie, and Francesco Valcanover. Tout l'oeuvre peint de Titien (Paris: Flammarion, 1970), p. 132, no. 459 (provenance of 56.PA.1, different painting illustrated), no. 605.

Waterhouse, Ellis Kirkham. Notebooks. Vol. 58 (Los Angeles: Getty Research Institute) accession no. 870204, p. 222 (Dec. 10, 1970).

Fredericksen, Burton B. Catalogue of the Paintings in the J. Paul Getty Museum (Malibu: J. Paul Getty Museum, 1972), pp. 34-36, no. 36, ill.

Fredericksen, Burton B., and Federico Zeri. Census of Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North American Public Collections (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1972), p. 202.

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