Mary Magdalene
Moretto da Brescia
1134 likes104 comments
The Story
In this intimate devotional panel, the young Correggio demonstrated his own evolving style while also assimilating lessons from other great painters of his era. The work’s pyramidal grouping of figures reflects the style of Raphael, while their soft outlines and the Virgin’s enigmatic smile recall the work of Leonardo da Vinci. The landscape in the background adds to the painting’s charm and demonstrates the artist’s knowledge of Northern European precedents.
The gentle sensuousness of the figures and the tenderness they show one another, however, are unique to Correggio. The artist used color, light, and shadow to bathe the image in a gentle glow, with skin and fabrics taking on a velvety texture. Correggio lived and worked in the northern Italian city of Parma, executing a body of work that is remarkable for its inventiveness and sophistication given his remove from the artistic centers of Rome, Florence, and Venice.
Working in Oil on panel at 64.2 × 50.2 cm (25 1/4 × 19 3/4 in.); Framed: 79.4 × 63.9 × 8.3 cm (31 1/4 × 25 1/8 × 3 1/4 in.), Correggio constructs depth through value contrast rather than outline, letting figures emerge from darkness the way they would under candlelight or through a shuttered window.
Look closely and the painting opens up. Objects you might pass over — a folded letter, a half-drawn curtain, the angle of a glance — were placed to be read. Commissioned images like this one were rarely neutral; every architectural flourish argues for authority.
Housed at Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago, the painting has passed through the hands of collectors, dealers, and institutions before reaching public view — a provenance that is itself part of the object's story.
“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”
