Titian's Mary Magdalen in the Palazzo Pitti : an ambiguous painting and its critics

Author

Aikema, Bernard

Document type

Article (journal)

Language

English

Source

Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes. 1994, Vol. 57, 48-59, [5] p. of pl., 9 ill.

ISSN

0075-4390

Abstract (en)

Aikema offers an interpretation of Titian's ca.1530-1535 painting of Mary Magadelen (Florence, Palazzo Pitti). In recent years, attempts have been made to see the picture as a religious image, overt in the sensuality of its appeal, that at once inspires devotion and sustains delection. Aikema argues this is an unacceptable interpretation, based as it is on a 20th c. artistic concept of complete liberty of association which was unknown in the Cinquecento. He suggests, instead, that it is precisely the polarity between profane sensuousness in the presentation, and edification in the iconography, that offers the key to the original meaning of the painting, which is of an unequivocally moralizing character.

Subject (en)

• General history of art -- 1400-1800 -- Pictorial arts -- Painting and drawing -- Italy
• Tiziano Vecellio, b.1488-1490, d.1576
• Painting
• S. Mary Magdalen
• Palazzo Pitti||Firenze (ITA)
• Italy
• 1500-1600
• Mary Magdalen, S.
• Iconography
• Saints
• Erotic art
• Morality

Subject (fr)

• Histoire générale de l'art -- 1400-1800 -- Peinture et arts graphiques -- Peinture et dessin -- Italie
• Tiziano Vecellio, n.1488-1490, m.1576
• Peinture
• La Madeleine
• Palazzo Pitti||Firenze (ITA)
• Italie
• 1500-1600
• Marie-Madeleine, sainte
• Iconographie
• Saints
• Erotique (art)
• Morale

Origin

DatabaseBHA (Inist-CNRS/GRI)

Identifier19960101-00281139

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