File:Domenico Tintoretto - Penitent Magdalene - WGA19636.jpg

"The present canvas appears to be a previously unpublished painting by Domenico Tintoretto. There are other treatments of the subject, though different in composition. The earliest of these would seem to be the example in Saint Bartolomew, Plzen, which is signed and dated 1586 (see Venezianische Malerei 15. bis 18. Jahrhundert, exhibition cataogue, Abertinum, Dresden, April 25- June 25, 1968, pp. 92-93, cat. no. 98, illus. plate 98). Another better known example, also signed but not dated, is in the Capitoline Museum, Rome. It can be dated with some accuracy; Carlo Ridolfi (1648) noted that Domenico was commissioned to paint the picture by Vincenzo I Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua in 1598/99 (see Gonzaga. La Celeste Galeria: Le raccolte, exhibition catalogue, Milan 2002, p. 198, cat. no. 40, color illus., p. 125). The painting was completed before 1602 when it was engraved by Raphael Sadeler. Both paintings are of very similar composition, and depict the saint in profile facing to the left, her hands clasped in prayer.

The present Magdalen is an independent composition; Domenico appears here to derive inspiration from Titian. The older master had painted a number of Penitent Magdalens from the 1530's and apparently up to the 1560's (Pitti Palace; Hermitage; Museo di Capodimonte). These like this painting depict the saint gazing upwards, her hand holding her flowing hair to cover her bare upper chest. Domenico has been inspired by other elements of these Titian paintings as well, including elements such as the elegant footed jar and a sweeping landscape beyond." [1]