The Penitent Magdalene c.1570-85
Oil on canvas | 144.4 x 102.3 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external) | RCIN 406090
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The Penitent Mary Magdalene is here sitting at full-length, naked but partly covered by her long golden-brown hair. She is facing half to the right and has her eyes raised and her hands clasped in prayer over a Bible and a crucifix that are set upon on a rock in the foreground. Behind her is a rocky cliff with a cave mouth, opening out to a distant landscape on the left.
The painting is worn but of good quality and the greyish cast of its colour is distinctly Genoese. In support of the attribution to Cambiaso a number of comparable works in Cambiaso’s later erotic style can be cited, for example the Venus and Adonis (Palazzo Bianco, Genoa) or the Diana and Callisto (Galleria Sabauda, Turin).Provenance
First recorded in the Royal Collection in 1832
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Creator(s)
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Medium and techniques
Oil on canvas
Measurements
144.4 x 102.3 cm (support, canvas/panel/stretcher external)
113.3 cm (support (etc), excluding additions)
158.5 x 117.1 x 4.7 cm (frame, external)