Original scientific paper
ST. MARY MAGDALENE BY ADRIAEN VAN DER WERFF
Đuro Vanđura
; Strossmayerova galerija starih majstora
Abstract
A summary presentation of the semi-nude Mary Magdalene among Rocks and its attribution made the experts of the Strossmayer Gallery attribute this canvas (1.346 m per. 0.982 m) to Italian school. Yet the comparison of the Zagreb example with the identical motive in Schleissheim indicates that they were both painted by the same author: Adriaen van der Werff (1659 - 1722). The two paintings differ very little: the frame of our painting shows three quarters of Mary Magdalene whose hips are covered with a blue veil instead of a dark red one. Van der Werff probably painted her c. 1707. The daring eroticism of Mary Magdalene's body implies probable models from the times when love was more explicit than at the beginning of the eighteenth century. ln Roman paintings, medieval miniatures, and in Renaissance, whose inspiration is openly drawn from ancient Rome, the comfortable body posture with supports at three different levels is as typical of antiquity as the standing contrapposto. This poses a new question concerning the Zagreb painting, i.e. whether Mary Magdalene was a substitute to Roman Venus, and whether the frail sisterhood once considered the painting the rendering of their patroness saint.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
165363
URI
Publication date:
15.12.1987.
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