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Behold the man
Penitent Magdalene
Venus and Mars
Saints Sebastian, John the Baptist and Francis
Susanna and the Elders
Entertainment in a garden of Albaro
Self-portrait of the painter in the act of painting the portrait of his father
Cain and Abel
Madonna of the candle
Madonna of the veil
Landscape with tree-lined avenue
Sorrowful Christ in the act of blessing
Still life of fruit, vegetables and flowers
Sant’Orsola
Christ and the adulteress
Adoration of the shepherds
Behold the man
Penitent Magdalene
Venus and Mars
Saints Sebastian, John the Baptist and Francis
Susanna and the Elders
Entertainment in a garden of Albaro
Self-portrait of the painter in the act of painting the portrait of his father
Cain and Abel
Madonna of the candle
Madonna of the veil
Landscape with tree-lined avenue
Sorrowful Christ in the act of blessing
Still life of fruit, vegetables and flowers
Sant’Orsola
Christ and the adulteress
Adoration of the shepherds

Penitent Magdalene

Antonio Canova

Displayed in:

White Palace

White Palace

Via Garibaldi, 11, Genoa

Closed today: open tomorrow at 09:00

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The work, considered one of the masterpieces of the artist's early maturity, bears the inscription Canova Roma 1790 on the back, but was actually made between 1794 and 1796, gaining great fame only a few years after its execution, when he made the his dazzling appearance at the Parisian Salon of 1808. On that occasion the statue was welcomed with great enthusiasm by the public, while it sparked a critical debate about the artist's choices regarding the boundaries between painting and sculpture and the possible interference between the two arts. In fact, in the penitent Magdalene, Canova works the marble by shaping the material to its extreme possibilities, passing from the extreme smoothness of the patinated body of Magdalene to the rough and rough treatment of the base on which it is placed; the gilded bronze insert of the cross, moreover, together with the realism of the truly sculpted tears and the flowing hair that the artist treated with wax mixed with sulfur, to restore their color, appear a conscious meditation on the possibilities of reaching the same in sculpture effects of painting. These experimental characters, combined with the undeniable sensual charm of the work, determined its extraordinary fortune in the Romantic age, thanks also to its exaltation by Stendhal. The Magdalene, whose client events are being studied and for which there are several preparatory sketches and a replica preserved in the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, appears to have been sold by the artist for 1000 sequins to the representative in Rome of the Cisalpine Republic Juliot who took it to Paris, Canova's first work to reach the French capital; it was then sold to Giovanni Battista Sommariva, who exhibited it at the Salon of 1808 and transported it to Milan where it was sold to the Marquis Aguado, in 1839 ending up again in Paris. On the latter's death, shortly after, it was purchased for 59,000 francs by Raffaele De Ferrari, Duke of Galliera, and placed in his Parisian home. It then passed to the city of Genoa in 1889 as a legacy of the widow, Maria Brignole - Sale de Ferrari.
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Title: Penitent Magdalene

Author: Antonio Canova

Date: 1794-1796

Technique:

Displayed in: White Palace

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