Follower of Antonio Canova

Follower of ANTONIO CANOVA (Italy, 1757 - 1822).
"Magdalene".
Alabaster carved.
Presents faults and restorations.
Measurements: 29 x 18 x 20 cm; 37 cm (height with pedestal).
This alabaster sculpture represents Mary Magdalene under the iconography of the penitent Magdalene, following the famous model created by Antonio Canova, one of the most admired images of the European neoclassical sculpture. The composition shows the saint immersed in a profound attitude of recollection and devotion, emphasizing both the spiritual dimension and the emotional fragility of the character. The choice of alabaster, with its translucent and smooth surface, also enhances the delicacy of the forms and gives the figure an almost ethereal appearance.
Canova's original model, created between 1794 and 1796 and now in the Museums of Strada Nuova, represented a renewal of religious sculpture by combining the classical ideal with an intense emotional sensitivity. Its success was so remarkable that the artist made a second version between 1808 and 1809 for Eugène de Beauharnais, now preserved in the Hermitage Museum. The existence of different versions and reproductions is evidence of the enormous diffusion and admiration that this image achieved in the European artistic context of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
From the stylistic point of view, the work fully responds to the ideals of Neoclassicism. The figure is conceived with great formal purity, compositional balance and a soft modeling inherited from ancient classical sculpture. However, Canova introduced a novel element by endowing the image with an intense sentimental charge, visible in the melancholic expression, the inclination of the body and the introspective attitude of the saint. This union between classical idealization and restrained emotion constitutes one of the most innovative characteristics of his sculptural production.
The technique also reveals an extraordinary attention to the treatment of the surfaces. Alabaster, like the marble used by Canova, allows the textures of the skin, hair and drapery to be delicately recreated, generating very subtle lighting effects that give the sculpture an almost pictorial quality. The light slides softly over the figure and contributes to create an atmosphere of silence and spiritual contemplation.