Lorenzo Pasinelli

Duke of Newcastle, Clumber House;
Walter P. Chrysler, Jr. Norfolk, Virginia;
G. Baherstani;
By whom (anonymously) sold, New York, Sotheby Parke-Bernet, 6 March 1971, lot 19 where purchased for $850;
Purchased circa 1972 by an American private collector;
By whom anonymously sold ("Property of a Private Collector"), New York, Sotheby's, 28 January 2000, lot 65 (as Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole);
Anonymous sale, New York, Sotheby's, 8 June 2007, lot 236 (as Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole);
There purchased by the present collector.

Nottingham, City of Nottingham Art Museum, Pictures from the Clumber Collection, (no date), cat. no. 69 (as by Trevisani);
London, Thos. Agnew & Sons, Some 17th Century Italian Pictures, 1942, cat. no. 16;
London, Arcade Gallery, Exhibition of the 18th Century Paintings from Venice and Bergamo, 11 February - 5 March, 1954, cat. no. 15, reproduced (as by Trevisani);
New York, Finch College Museum of Art, Baroque Painters of Bologna and Neighboring Cities, 1962, cat. no. 21;
Norfolk, Virginia, Norfolk Museum of Arts and Sciences, Italian Renaissance and Baroque Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler Jr., 2 December, 1967 - 15 May, 1968, cat. no. 49.

C. Volpe, "Un'altra Maddalena di Lorenzo Pasinelli," in Arte Antica e Moderna, no. 8, October-December 1959, p. 437, no. 8, reproduced fig. 184 (as Pasinelli);
R.L. Manning, in Baroque Painters of Bologna and Neighboring Cities, exhibition catalogue, New York 1962, cat. no. 21 (as Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole);
R.L. Manning, in Italian Renaissance and Baroque Paintings from the Collection of Walter P. Chrysler Jr., exhibition catalogue 1967, cat. no. 49, reproduced (as Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole);
R. Roli, Pittura Bolognese 1650-1800: dal Cignani ai Gadolfi, Bologna 1977, p. 285 (as Pasinelli);
C. Thiem, Giovan Gioseffo dal Sole, Bologna 1990, p. 92, cat. Q8, reproduced (as Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole);
C. Baroncini, Lorenzo Pasinelli, Pittore (1629-1700), Rimini 1993, pp. 277-279, cat. no. 55, reproduced plate LV (as Pasinelli);
C. Baroncini, Vita e Opere di Lorenzo Pasinelli (1629-1700), Faenza 2010, pp. 277-278, cat. no. 61, reproduced (as by Pasinelli).

The following condition report has been provided by Simon Parkes of Simon Parkes Art Conservation, Inc. 502 East 74th St. New York, NY 212-734-3920, simonparkes@msn.com, an independent restorer who is not an employee of Sotheby's.This work has been quite recently restored and should be hung in its current condition. The painting is very well preserved. The canvas has an old lining. There is little or no thinness to the paint layer. There are no retouches in the dark colors at all. The only retouching is in the bicep of the figure, in her lips and above and below her eye. The condition is particularly good, and the retouching is sparingly applied and very accurate.
"This lot is offered for sale subject to Sotheby's Conditions of Business, which are available on request and printed in Sotheby's sale catalogues. The independent reports contained in this document are provided for prospective bidders' information only and without warranty by Sotheby's or the Seller."

When in the collection of the Duke of Newcastle, Clumber House, this Penitent Magdalene was ascribed to Francesco Trevisani.  In the mid-twentieth century, the painting was in the collection of Walter P. Chrysler where it was reattributed by Robert L. Manning to Giovanni Gioseffo dal Sole, an attribution that was reconfirmed by Christel Thiem in his 1990 monograph on that artist.  However, as early as 1959, Carlo Volpe had already suggested that this Magdalene was a work by Lorenzo Pasinelli, dal Sole’s master, and this attribution was endorsed by Renato Roli (1977) and Carmela Baroncini in her monographs on Pasinelli (1993 and 2010).  In further support of the attribution to Pasinelli, Baroncini points out the existence of an engraving by Giovanni Fabbri (fig. 1) which follows exactly the composition of this Magdelene, and is inscribed Laurentius Pasinelli pinxit.

This Penitent Magdalene can be compared to another painting by Pasinelli of the same subject, signed and dated 1685, formerly in the Liechtenstein collection and now at Valtice Castle, Břeclav, Czechoslovakia.  That painting depicts the Magdalene in similar pose, as a beautiful young woman seen in profile and holding the crucifix to her breast.  The ex Liechtenstein version includes the skull and book in the left foreground, whereas the present version depicts these objects in a niche behind the Magdalene.  Pasinelli’s pupil and biographer, Giampietro Zanotti (1674-1765), discusses his master's depictions of the Magdalene, which were apparently in great demand, telling how he did not devise entirely new compositions for each version, but varied only the details.¹

 

1.  See C. Baroncini,  op.cit., 1993, p. 276, under cat. no. 54; and op.cit., 2010, p. 275, under cat. no. 60.