Italian school of the seventeenth century. Circle of Luca Giordano.

Italian school of the XVII century.
"Mary Magdalene."
Oil on canvas.
It has patches on the back.
Measurements: 77 x 65 cm; 95 x 79 cm (frame).

Mary Magdalene was a biblical figure extremely represented in the Baroque period, especially in the Italian painting of more sensualist roots. Here, a strong chiaroscuro models the soft features and lush flesh tones of the saint.
While Eastern Christianity honors Mary Magdalene especially for her closeness to Jesus, considering her "equal to the apostles", in the West the idea developed, based on her identification with other women in the Gospels, that before meeting Jesus she had dedicated herself to prostitution. Hence the later legend narrates that she spent the rest of her life as a penitent in the desert, mortifying her flesh. In art she was preferably represented in this way, especially in the 17th century, a time when Catholic societies felt a special fascination for the lives of mystics and saints who lived in solitude in wild places, dedicated to prayer and penance. The theme of the Magdalene, moreover, offered the possibility of representing a beautiful woman who shows some parts of the anatomy then considered taboo, such as the feet or the breast, but who in her respects decorum because she is mortified flesh that expresses repentance for her past sins.

This work is inscribed within the aesthetic patterns of the work of Luca Giordano, the most prominent Neapolitan painter of the late seventeenth century, and one of the main representatives of the last Italian Baroque. Painter and engraver, known in Spain as Lucas Jordan, Giordano enjoyed great popularity during his lifetime, both in his native Italy and in our country. However, after his death his work was often criticized for its speed of execution, opposed to the Greco-Latin aesthetics. It is believed that he was formed in the environment of Ribera, whose style he followed at first. However, he soon traveled to Rome and Venice, where he studied Veronese, whose influence has been felt ever since in his work. This trip was key to the maturation of his style, as well as the influences of other artists such as Mattia Preti, Rubens, Bernini and, above all, Pietro da Cortona. At the end of the 1670s Giordano began his great mural decorations (Montecassino and San Gregorio Armeno in Naples), which were followed from 1682 by other projects, including the mural paintings in the gallery and library of the Palazzo Medici Ricardi in Florence. In 1692 he was called to Madrid to carry out mural works in the monastery of El Escorial, where he worked from 1692 to 1694. Later he also painted the office and bedroom of Charles II in the Royal Palace of Aranjuez, and after these he undertook the paintings of the Casón del Buen Retiro (ca. 1697), the sacristy of the cathedral of Toledo (1698), the royal chapel of the Alcázar and San Antonio de los Portugueses (1699). However, royal commissions ceased with the arrival of Philip V in 1701 and the beginning of the War of Succession, so Giordano returned to Naples in 1702, although from there he continued to send paintings to Spain. Today Giordano's works are kept in the most important art galleries around the world, including the Prado Museum, the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, the Louvre in Paris, the Kunsthistorisches in Vienna, the Metropolitan in New York and the National Gallery in London.