Saint Magdalena, carried up by angels

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Saint Magdalena carried up by angels (Antonio Vivarini)
Saint Magdalena, carried up by angels
Antonio Vivarini , before 1440
Tempera on a gold background
105.4 x 45.8 cm
Gemäldegalerie Berlin

Saint Magdalena, carried up by angels is a painting by the Italian painter Antonio Vivarini , also called Antonio da Murano . The upright rectangular poplar wood panel with a concluding three-pass arch was painted with tempera on a gold background . The painting was probably part of a polyptych , a multi-part altarpiece, and cannot currently be assigned to a former frame.

description

The depiction shows a woman from the front, her hands folded in prayer. Long, red-blonde hair envelops her otherwise unclothed body. Your feet are stretched towards the ground, but not touching it. This makes it seem as if the sitter is floating in front of the golden background. The six angels that fly around them seem to carry their bodies to heaven. At their feet is a barren rocky landscape in which a person praying kneels and looks up to the saint .

Dating

The exact dating of the work is unclear. The State Museums in Berlin dated the date of creation to the time before 1440.

Provenance

The painting has been part of the collection of the Berlin Gemäldegalerie since 1821 . In 1821 it was bought with the collection of the merchant Edward Solly .

Authorship and Attribution

For a long time the work was attributed to the Venetian painter Michele Giambono . At the beginning of the 20th century, Wilhelm von Bode speculated that the depiction might be identical to a painting originally in the nunnery of S. Maria delle Vergini in Venice, which was also assigned to Giambono. A few years later, Antonio Vivarini is clearly named as the author , who is said to have worked on the painting together with Giovanni d'Alemagna . D'Alemagna had worked in Vivarini's Venetian workshop since 1441. Current infrared examinations of the work made clear signatures and incised lines visible, which suggest that the painting came from Vivarini's workshop, but was created after his death.

Personal attribution and iconography

The sitter is Maria Magdalena . The person praying at her feet is probably the donor of the picture, an abbess of the Augustinian order .

The Golden Legend of Mary Magdalene was exposed with their brothers in a rudderless ship on the Mediterranean, which ran aground in southern France. There they will be in the Sainte-Baume withdrew into a cave as a sign of remorse for their former lifestyle penance to do. Therefore depictions of Mary Magdalene often show the follower of Jesus Christ in a wasteland or in a cave , symbolic of her time as penitent in seclusion.

She is often depicted with floor length hair that covers her nakedness. In this way, their seclusion and their ascetic life should be made visible from the outside. God let her fur grow to protect her from wild animals. According to the Legenda aurea , angels carried her to heaven at every liturgy , where she could listen to the sacred chants.

literature

  • Ian Richard Holgate: The Vivarini Workshop and its Patrons, c. 1430-1450. University of St. Andrews, 1999.
  • Catarina Schmidt Arcangeli: Antonio Vivarini and his workshop: tradition and innovation in two forgotten altarpieces. In: Yearbook of the Berlin museums. Vol. 50, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, 2008, pp. 53–77.
  • Gustav Friedrich scales : School of Vivarini. In: Directory of the painting collection of the Royal Museum in Berlin. Royal Museums in Berlin, Painting Gallery, 1837, No. 131, p. 299.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Catarina Schmidt Arcangeli: Antonio Vivarini and his workshop: tradition and innovation in two forgotten altarpieces . In: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Hrsg.): Yearbook of the Berlin museums . tape 50 . Berlin 2008, p. 53 .
  2. ↑ a b SMB digital | Saint Magdalena, carried up by angels. Retrieved June 23, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Wilhelm Bode : Descriptive directory of the paintings in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum . Ed .: Royal Museums in Berlin. Berlin 1891, p. 154 .
  4. ^ Wilhelm Bode: Descriptive directory of the paintings in the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum . Ed .: Royal Museums in Berlin. Berlin 1906, p. 155 .
  5. ↑ Royal Museums in Berlin (ed.): Descriptive directory of the paintings in the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum . Georg Reimer Verlag, Berlin 1912, p. 466 .
  6. ^ Catarina Schmidt Arcangeli: Antonio Vivarini and his workshop: tradition and innovation in two forgotten altar pieces. In: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (Hrsg.): Yearbook of the Berlin museums . tape 50 . Berlin 2008, p. 62-63 .
  7. ↑ Bart D. Ehrman: Peter, Paul, and Mary Magdalene. The Followers of Jesus in History and Legend . Oxford 2006, p. 184 .
  8. ↑ Hildegard Kretschmer: Lexicon of symbols and attributes in art . Reclam, Stuttgart 2008, p. 128 .
  9. ↑ Mary Magdalene. In: Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints. Retrieved June 23, 2020 .
  10. ↑ Michelle Erhardt et al. (Ed.): Mary Magdalene: Iconographic Studies from the Middle Ages to the Baroque . Studies in Religion and the Arts, Leiden 2012.