Mary Magdalene in a rocky landscape,
oil on panel, 74 x 53 cm, framed

The present composition relies on a model by Giovanni Pietro Rizzoli, il Giampietrino, the Magdalene dated to around 1525 (private collection, Padua; see C. Geddo, Una nuova ‘Maddalena’ del Giampietrino, in: Il più dolce lavorare che sia. Mélanges en l’honneur de Mauro Natale, ed. by F. Elsig/N. Etienne/G. Extermann, Milan, 2009, pp. 291–97, fig. 1).
However in Giampietrino’s representation of Mary Magdalene the figure appears against a plain backdrop of rocks whereas in the present composition the saint is set in a vast and meticulously rendered landscape. The lush, green meadow rock cave in the background seems to be inspired by Leondardo’s Madonna of the Rocks (Louvre, Paris).
Apart from the figure’s elegant elongation, the precise execution and love of detail are elements of style that remove the artist of the present painting from the circle of Giampietrino and relate him closer to the academic approach of Leonardesque painters active in Milan during the 1530s, such as Cesare Magni, Francesco Melzi, and Girolamo Figino.

We are grateful to Cristina Geddo for her help in cataloguing this lot.

The present composition relies on a model by Giovanni Pedrini, il Giampietrino, the Magdalene dated to around 1525 (private collection, Padua; see C. Geddo, Una nuova ‘Maddalena’ del Giampietrino, in: Il più dolce lavorare che sia. Mélanges en l’h