The Penitent Magdalene, oil on canvas, 65 x 54 cm, framed

We are grateful to Professor Daniele Benati (written communication) and Professor Andrea Emiliani (written communication) and Nicholas Turner for independently confirming the attribution of the present painting.

Guido Reni returned to the subject matter of the Mary Magdalene on several occasions as it was evidently a theme that was held in high esteem by collectors.

There are numerous comparative autograph paintings by Reni that help to define the date of the present canvas to around the mid-1630s – a date towards the end of the artist’s career and the last strikingly inventive and poetic period of work from the celebrated Bolognese painter. The extreme freedom with which Reni paints the hands in the present composition is typical of his production during this period; working quickly with a brush he uses rapid strokes to make the fingers stand out, taking care to then lighten the paint surface by creating texture which is particularly evident on the back of the right hand.

The present composition may be compared to the three-quarter figure of the Magdalene in the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Quimper, France, of a slightly earlier date (see S. Pepper, Guido Reno. L’opera completa, Turin 1988, fig. 100), as well as the half-length Magdalene in Versailles (op. cit., fig. 106), the full-length Magdalene in the Palazzo Corsini, Rome, which has been dated to around 1631/32, and also the half-length Magdalene in the National Gallery, London, dated to 1634/35.

In the mid-1630s Reni also completed several very large pictures begun during the 1620s: the Madonna and Child with Saints Thomas and Jerome in the Vatican, the Circumcision in the church of San Martino in Siena, and Job Receiving the Gifts of the People in Notre-Dame, Paris.