Circle of Tiziano Vecellio, called Titian

Anonymous sale, Genova, Aste Boetto, 2 October 2024, lot 901 (as Venetian school, 18^th century);

Where acquired by the present owner.

This work replicates one of Titan's most successful and popular compositions, of which numerous autograph and workshop variants are known.¹ Produced from the 1530s onwards over a period of more than four decades, they can broadly be categorised in two types: an earlier one in which the female figure is depicted entirely nude, solely covered by her abundant hair;² and a second type, replicated in the present work.

In overall design, this canvas comes closest in conception to a picture in a private collection, dated by Paul Joannides to circa 1565.³ Like the present work, the prayer book in the foreground rests directly on the rocky ledge without a supporting skull, a feature that only appears in a painting at the Getty Museum, Los Angeles,⁴ and a picture in a private collection sold at Sotheby's, New York, in 2008, for $4,521,000.⁵

We are grateful to Paul Joannides for his opinion on the basis of digital images.

¹ In his recent study on Titian's Penitent Magdalene, Dr Carlo Corsato identified a total of 25 variants, 8 of which he considered to be fully autograph; C. Corsato, 'Titian's Magdalens: money, measurements, mise-en-page', in Titian. Themes and Variations, P. Humfrey (ed.), Florence 2022, pp. 84–91.

² https://www.uffizi.it/en/artworks/saint-mary-magdalene

³ P. Joannides, 'An Attempt to Situate Titian's Paintings of the "Penitent Magdalen" in Some Kind of Order', in Artibus et Historiae, vol. 37, no. 73, 2016, pp. 185–89, figs 30 and 31, reproduced in colour; https://www.dorotheum.com/en/l/2332597/

⁴ https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/object/103R9F

⁵ https://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2008/important-old-master-paintings-including-european-works-of-art-n08404/lot.117.html