The subject of Savoldo's Magdalene

Author

Pardo, Mary

Document type

Article (journal)

Language

English

Source

Art bulletin. 1989, Num. 1, Vol. 71, p. 67-91, 12 ill.

ISSN

0004-3079

Abstract (en)

Savoldo's half-length Magdalene (first version dated ca.1524, London, National Gallery) has been consistently regarded as a secularized, if mysteriously enticing, image of the saint. Here it is interpreted as a novel transformation of the Renaissance devotional image in light of John 20:11-18, and of narrative and formal developments in Italian painting of half-length format from the period 1475-1505. The formal aspect receives an especially close analysis: Savoldo's approach to pictorial illusion can be shown to embody a poetic of the fictive that is dependent on the rhetorical model of Alberti, but ultimately based on widespread trecento formulations about poetry's relation to painting.

Subject (en)

• General history of art -- 1400-1800 -- Pictorial arts -- Painting and drawing -- Italy
• 1500-1600
• Italy
• S. Mary Magdalen
• National Gallery||London (GBR)
• Iconography
• Saints
• Sources
• Savoldo, Giovanni Girolamo, ca.1480-ca.1548
• Painting
• Mary Magdalen, S.
• Bible, N.T., John
• Christian iconography

Subject (fr)

• Histoire générale de l'art -- 1400-1800 -- Peinture et arts graphiques -- Peinture et dessin -- Italie
• 1500-1600
• Italie
• La Madeleine
• National Gallery||London (GBR)
• Iconographie
• Saints
• Sources
• Savoldo, Giovanni Girolamo, v.1480-v.1548
• Peinture
• Marie-Madeleine, sainte
• Bible, N.T., Jean
• Iconographie chrétienne

Origin

DatabaseBHA (Inist-CNRS/GRI)

Identifier19910101-00446354

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