A major event for the city of Naples: the Magdalene, a masterpiece by Artemisia Gentileschi.
The work will be displayed in one of the city's most beautiful places: the magnificent and famous St. Clare Monumental Complex.
The masterpiece returns to view in Naples, the city where it was painted between 1630 and 1635.
Jealously preserved for centuries in private collections, for the past 100 years the Magdalene was in the prestigious Sursock collection in Beirut, where it was severely damaged in the notorious August 4, 2020 explosion.
Expertly restored thanks to the intervention of Arthemisia, the work has now returned to its former glory, displaying all the features of style and visual storytelling characteristic of the long period Artemisia spent in Naples, where she lived from 1630 until her death in 1654.
"The dating to 1630-1635 coincides with Artemisia's arrival in Naples, a period during which yellow and blue tones abound in her paintings. The saint is depicted in a moment of dialogue with the divine, her eyes are not "full of tears": we witness a different emotional response, not due to a blatant "angelic vision in heaven" but to an inner travail that consciously leads her to the gesture of renouncing vanity, represented by the pearl necklace. The gesture, another theme peculiar to Baroque art, is powerful, but at the same time gracious: the necklace is delicately detached from the right hand brought toward the chest, it is not torn off in the grip of an artificial thunderbolt, and thus we witness the moment when this symbol is already gently leaving the woman's neck. Next to Magdalene are the ointment jar on the table behind her, the jewelry, and what looks like a mirror in a basket, an iconographic detail already present in Artemisia's Magdalene at the Pitti Palace (1617-1620). The figure is seen from a slightly lowered point, seated, and emerges vehemently from the dark background. Artemisia appeals to a register dear to Baroque art, enunciated by Rudolf Wittkower in 1958: the subtle drama given by this twisting to her left, the expression revealing a trance-like state due to an inner dialogue with the Divine, which does not shock but comforts the saint. The light, with strong spiritual significance, invests the imposing figure, accentuating the effect of movement of the drapery." (Francesco Trasacco, 2023)
The unmistakable tones of somber golden yellow and ultramarine blue against which the whiteness of the shirt stands out are emphasized by the power of chiaroscuro, which does not preclude the parts in light from having a distinct splendor. The saint, whose ecstatic gaze conveys gratification at the transition to a new life sustained by faith, seems to be mentally conversing with the divine, while behind her the jewels and the jar of ointments are placed to emphasize the abandonment of her previous existence.
Under the patronage of the Campania Region, the exhibition is made possible thanks to the collaboration between the Neapolitan Province of the Sacred Heart of Jesus of the Order of Friars Minor, the FEC (Fondo Edifici di Culto), Agape and Arthemisia.
The scientific curatorship is by Costantino d'Orazio and the catalog is published by Moebius.
After living about ten years in Rome, in 1630 Artemisia moved to Naples-a city of extraordinary artistic vibrancy.
His style, so close to that of Caravaggio, fascinated Neapolitan collectors.
From Naples, where she arrived with her brother Francesco and daughter Prudenzia, Artemisia kept up a close correspondence with Cassiano dal Pozzo, a celebrated scholar and her passionate patron, with the Duke of Modena Francesco I d'Este and Ferdinando II de' Medici, who obtained her paintings, while Galileo Galilei and the Messina nobleman Don Antonio Ruffo became her advisers and mediators.
If we exclude the English interlude, when in 1638-39 he went to London to work with his father Horatio at the court of King Charles I-perhaps participating in the decoration of the Queen's House of Delights
Henrietta - Artemisia never moved from Naples, where she produced a large quantity of canvases with the help of her brother Francesco, who replaced her husband Pierantonio in running the workshop.
Having lost track of Pierantonio, Artemisia managed to marry off her daughter Prudenzia in 1636, supported by the many customers who bought her paintings.
Having become Europe's most famous painter, she surrounded herself with pupils and collaborators, even painting the only public works of her career for Pozzuoli Cathedral.
She died around 1653, on a date still unconfirmed: her tomb in the Church of San Giovanni Battista dei Fiorentini was lost in the 1950s, when the building was torn down to make way for a modern apartment building.
