(Milan 1607–1665)
The Penitent Magdalene,
oil on panel, 46.5 x 37 cm, framed

Provenance:
Alberto Gnecchi Ruscone (1905–1952), Milan (according to a label on the reverse);
collection of Giovanni Testori (1923–1993) (according to a label on the reverse);
with Galleria Michelangelo, Bergamo;
where acquired by the father of present owner

Literature: 
F. Moro, in: V. Silbernagl/E. Daverio (eds.), Collezione ed investimento: Opere di pittori dal ’400 al ’700, exhibition catalogue, Milan 1998, ill. (as Francesco Cairo)

Exhibited:
Leonardo da Vinci exhibition (according to a label on the reverse)

We are grateful to Francesco Frangi for confirming the attribution of the present painting after examination in the original.

This painting belongs to the late period of Francesco del Cairo’s career. It represents the Magdalene, bust-length, her breast uncovered, and her gaze turned towards the ground as she holds a skull, the symbol of her penitence. The ochre pallet and the dark ground contribute to heightening the pathos of the scene, in a manner typical of Cairo’s paintings. The artist represented the Magdalene on several occasions including the Penitent Magdalene from the Pinacoteca Malaspina of the Musei Civici di Pavia.

Francesco Cairo most likely trained in Milan with Pier Francesco Mazzucchelli, il Morazzone from whom he inherited a dark and earthy pallet and a tendency to represent figures in his compostions dramatically, sometimes employing strong contrasting shadows, chiaroscuro. At the beginning of the 1630s Cairo moved to Turin where he was appointed court painter to Vittorio Amadeo I, Duke of Savoy. By the end of the decade, following a visit to Rome where he was able to study both classicist and Caravaggist painting, he returned to northern Italy and worked in Turin, Varese and Milan where he resettled towards the end of the 1640s. His style also absorbed the influence of Venetian cinquecento painting, leading to his attainment of freer manner handling of paint, endowed with rich sfumato effects, attributes that are apparent in the present painting.