Follower of Titian; 17th century.

Follower of TIZIANO (Pieve di Cadore, Belluno, Veneto, ca. 1477/1490-Venice, 1576; 17th century.
"Penitent Magdalene."
Oil on canvas. Relined.
Measurements: 84 x 66 cm.
The present work shows similarities with the "Penitent Magdalene" painted by Titian around 1531-1533, preserved in the Pitti Gallery in Florence. Mary Magdalene is mentioned in the New Testament as a distinguished disciple of Christ. According to the Gospels, she housed and materially provided for Jesus and his disciples during their stay in Galilee, and was present at the Crucifixion. She was a witness of the Resurrection, as well as the one in charge of transmitting the news to the apostles. She is also identified with the woman who anointed Jesus' feet with perfumes before his arrival in Jerusalem, so her main iconographic attribute is a knob of essences, like the one shown here. Alone, Mary Magdalene is usually depicted as we see here, doing penance in the desert, repentant for her past sins. The story of this saint serves as an example of Christ's forgiveness, and conveys the message of the possibility of redemption of the soul through repentance and faith.
Titian Vecellio was a painter of the Italian Renaissance and one of the greatest exponents of the Venetian school, which explains the use of bright and luminous colors, as well as a loose brushstroke and an innate chromatic molding. He was a disciple of Giovanni Bellini (Venice, ca. 1433 - 1516), an Italian painter of the Fourteenth century known for his sumptuous coloring as well as for his landscapes and fluid atmospheres. The death of the main consolidated artists at the time (Giorgione and his own master, Bellini) and the transfers of Sebastiano del Piombo and Lorenzo Lotto to Rome and Bergamo respectively, left Titian without rivals, at which time he began his period of expansion in which the Italian freed himself from the hermetic canons learned during his youth, and began to produce the works that would consecrate him as a key painter in the history of European art: Court portraits for the Duke of Ferrara Alfonso I of Este or his intervention and culmination in the high altar of the Basilica of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, Venice. In 1521 Titian's workshop began to acquire important prominence, receiving numerous commissions such as The Martyrdom of St. Peter of Verona (1530), the year in which began the artist's period of consolidation and in which he cultivated an increasingly dramatic style, increasing the good relations with the court of Mantua, which would mean his consecration as a portraitist, making works such as Charles V on horseback in Mülberg (1548). In his later years, the Italian artist became increasingly self-critical, creating completely perfectionist works such as Danae Receiving the Golden Rain (1553) and working for Philip II, the monarch with whom he maintained an abundant artistic relationship, producing numerous royal portraits.