Lot No. 92 -


Guido Cagnacci


Guido Cagnacci - Old Master Paintings

(Sant’Arcangelo di Romagna 1601–1663 Vienna)
The Penitent Magdalene,
oil on canvas, 54.5 x 65 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Finarte, Milan, 28 March 1980, no. 89 (as Antonio Gherardi);
Private European collection;
where acquired by the present owner

Literature:
D. Benati, in: Guido Cagnacci protagonista del Seicento tra Caravaggio e Guido Reni, edited by D. Benati/A. Paolucci, exhibition catalogue, Cinisello Balsamo 2008, mentioned p. 180

We are grateful to Daniele Benati for cataloguing the present painting.

In the darkness of a cave, the saint is shown in meditation as she grasps the crucifix in her right hand and a skull in her left. Her auburn hair falls over her shoulders, which are covered by a crimson mantle. Light falls from the left illuminating her temple and cheek, where a tear sparkles, while it also plays over the polished surface of the skull. Nothing disturbs the solitude of this beautiful sinner, as she gives free rein here to tears of remorse.

This image of highly concentrated emotion was executed by Guido Cagnacci during a complex period of formal experimentation that characterised his activity during the early 1620s. After training locally – and already showing an openness to naturalistic influences – the young artist was able to make at least two journeys to Rome, the second of which is securely documented to 1622, when he was a guest of Guercino in the home rented by the latter on Strada Paolina (today’s Via del Babuino). His knowledge of the still prominent inheritance of Caravaggio was to be essential for the later development of his painting, as is demonstrated by the paintings he made on his return home. The palette of the Magdalene under discussion here is very similar to that of the Calling of Saint Mathew in the Museo della Città of Rimini (illustrated in op. cit. Benati/Paolucci, 2008, no. 22, pp. 162-165), where Christ’s robes are the same red hue as the saint’s mantle, and the soft flesh tones connoted by a sudden reddening, are very similar. The auburn tone of the saint’s hair recurs in other paintings made during these years, like the figure of Saint Julian the Hospitaller in the altarpiece of Saint Anthony Abbot between two saints belonging to the same museum (see op. cit. Benati/Paolucci, 2008, no. 23, pp. 166-169), which also shares a similar rendering of light and is likewise studied from life, or the youthful Madonna of the Rose known in two versions (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Ferrara and Luigi Koelliker collection, Milan; see op. cit. Benati/Paolucci, 2008, nos. 25-26, pp. 172-175). In each of these works, datable according to Benati to circa 1625, the Caravaggist composition is interpreted through the filter of a painterly intensification, which demonstrates how in Rome Cagnacci was also especially attentive to the manner of Orazio Borgianni.

An especially impressive characteristic of his paintings from this period (see also the Penitent Magdalene in the Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Barberini, Rome, illustrated in op. cit. Benati/Paolucci, 2008, no. 20, pp. 154-155) is the accent of poignant sensuality conferred by Cagnacci on his images of contrite and penitent female saints, where the feeling of sin joins with the pain of repentance. Here, as elsewhere, he does not fear to venture along the path of an aggressive realism to describe the reactions to the suffering imposed upon the woman: the strain of her crying that distorts her beautiful mouth, the reddening of her cheeks, her throbbing throat – these are all details that he brings into focus with an almost morbid satisfaction. These aspects, for which the example of Guido Reni is as yet absent, and to which Cagnacci would only later find a closeness – are best compared, not to the Florentine painters usually recalled by the critics, whose solutions were more cerebral and artificially languorous and eroticised, but to the great Lombard, Francesco Cairo. He was the protagonist of a spiritual adventure that is in some ways similar to that of Cagnacci, wherein theatre and sentiment are inextricably united.

In 2008 Benati first restituted the present Penitent Magdalene to Cagnacci, it was only known to him in a photograph, as a work offered for sale by the painter from Rieti, Antonio Gherardi (Finarte, Milan, 28 March 1980, lot 89), after which it was lost from view. Two copies of the present work are known: one belonging to the Pinacoteca di Varallo Sesia (55 x 66 cm, see P. Vanoli, in: S. Amerigo/C. Falcone (eds.), Dipinti, sculture e oggetti di arte decorative dal XV al XX secolo. La collezione Remogna, Borgosesia 2015, pp. 86-89) and another in the Luigi Koelliker collection, Milan (47 x 58.5 cm, see M. Pulini, La Madonna col Bambino di Cagnacci. Un dipinto per Santarcangelo dalla collezione Koelliker, exhibition catalogue, Recanati 2006).

Another autograph version, in which, however, the saint is nude and en plein air, was exhibited in 1996 by the Fondantico Gallery, Bologna, and is now in the Spadoni collection, Ravenna (see op. cit. Benati/Paolucci, 2008, pp. 180-181, no. 29).

17.10.2017 - 18:00

Realized price: **
EUR 77,518.-
Estimate:
EUR 80,000.- to EUR 120,000.-

Guido Cagnacci


(Sant’Arcangelo di Romagna 1601–1663 Vienna)
The Penitent Magdalene,
oil on canvas, 54.5 x 65 cm, framed

Provenance:
sale, Finarte, Milan, 28 March 1980, no. 89 (as Antonio Gherardi);
Private European collection;
where acquired by the present owner

Literature:
D. Benati, in: Guido Cagnacci protagonista del Seicento tra Caravaggio e Guido Reni, edited by D. Benati/A. Paolucci, exhibition catalogue, Cinisello Balsamo 2008, mentioned p. 180

We are grateful to Daniele Benati for cataloguing the present painting.

In the darkness of a cave, the saint is shown in meditation as she grasps the crucifix in her right hand and a skull in her left. Her auburn hair falls over her shoulders, which are covered by a crimson mantle. Light falls from the left illuminating her temple and cheek, where a tear sparkles, while it also plays over the polished surface of the skull. Nothing disturbs the solitude of this beautiful sinner, as she gives free rein here to tears of remorse.

This image of highly concentrated emotion was executed by Guido Cagnacci during a complex period of formal experimentation that characterised his activity during the early 1620s. After training locally – and already showing an openness to naturalistic influences – the young artist was able to make at least two journeys to Rome, the second of which is securely documented to 1622, when he was a guest of Guercino in the home rented by the latter on Strada Paolina (today’s Via del Babuino). His knowledge of the still prominent inheritance of Caravaggio was to be essential for the later development of his painting, as is demonstrated by the paintings he made on his return home. The palette of the Magdalene under discussion here is very similar to that of the Calling of Saint Mathew in the Museo della Città of Rimini (illustrated in op. cit. Benati/Paolucci, 2008, no. 22, pp. 162-165), where Christ’s robes are the same red hue as the saint’s mantle, and the soft flesh tones connoted by a sudden reddening, are very similar. The auburn tone of the saint’s hair recurs in other paintings made during these years, like the figure of Saint Julian the Hospitaller in the altarpiece of Saint Anthony Abbot between two saints belonging to the same museum (see op. cit. Benati/Paolucci, 2008, no. 23, pp. 166-169), which also shares a similar rendering of light and is likewise studied from life, or the youthful Madonna of the Rose known in two versions (Pinacoteca Nazionale, Ferrara and Luigi Koelliker collection, Milan; see op. cit. Benati/Paolucci, 2008, nos. 25-26, pp. 172-175). In each of these works, datable according to Benati to circa 1625, the Caravaggist composition is interpreted through the filter of a painterly intensification, which demonstrates how in Rome Cagnacci was also especially attentive to the manner of Orazio Borgianni.

An especially impressive characteristic of his paintings from this period (see also the Penitent Magdalene in the Galleria Nazionale di Palazzo Barberini, Rome, illustrated in op. cit. Benati/Paolucci, 2008, no. 20, pp. 154-155) is the accent of poignant sensuality conferred by Cagnacci on his images of contrite and penitent female saints, where the feeling of sin joins with the pain of repentance. Here, as elsewhere, he does not fear to venture along the path of an aggressive realism to describe the reactions to the suffering imposed upon the woman: the strain of her crying that distorts her beautiful mouth, the reddening of her cheeks, her throbbing throat – these are all details that he brings into focus with an almost morbid satisfaction. These aspects, for which the example of Guido Reni is as yet absent, and to which Cagnacci would only later find a closeness – are best compared, not to the Florentine painters usually recalled by the critics, whose solutions were more cerebral and artificially languorous and eroticised, but to the great Lombard, Francesco Cairo. He was the protagonist of a spiritual adventure that is in some ways similar to that of Cagnacci, wherein theatre and sentiment are inextricably united.

In 2008 Benati first restituted the present Penitent Magdalene to Cagnacci, it was only known to him in a photograph, as a work offered for sale by the painter from Rieti, Antonio Gherardi (Finarte, Milan, 28 March 1980, lot 89), after which it was lost from view. Two copies of the present work are known: one belonging to the Pinacoteca di Varallo Sesia (55 x 66 cm, see P. Vanoli, in: S. Amerigo/C. Falcone (eds.), Dipinti, sculture e oggetti di arte decorative dal XV al XX secolo. La collezione Remogna, Borgosesia 2015, pp. 86-89) and another in the Luigi Koelliker collection, Milan (47 x 58.5 cm, see M. Pulini, La Madonna col Bambino di Cagnacci. Un dipinto per Santarcangelo dalla collezione Koelliker, exhibition catalogue, Recanati 2006).

Another autograph version, in which, however, the saint is nude and en plein air, was exhibited in 1996 by the Fondantico Gallery, Bologna, and is now in the Spadoni collection, Ravenna (see op. cit. Benati/Paolucci, 2008, pp. 180-181, no. 29).


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Auction: Old Master Paintings
Auction type: Saleroom auction
Date: 17.10.2017 - 18:00
Location: Vienna | Palais Dorotheum
Exhibition: 07.10. - 17.10.2017


** Purchase price incl. buyer's premium and VAT(Country of delivery: Austria)

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