Beskrivning: Magdalena ses i förgrunden knäböjande vid Kristi fötter. Hon är iklädd ljusblå klänning, vita ärmar och gul mantel. Kristus, som böjer sig fram välsignande, är iklädd i ljus röd dräkt och blå mantel. Bakom Magdalena står en apostel i gul dräkt och röd mantel. I bakgrunden sju apostlar i olikfärgade dräkter kring ett dukat bord.


Se beskrivning i den engelska versionen.

Res. Katalogtext: Description in Italian Paintings: Three Centuries of Collecting, Nationalmuseum, Stockholm, 2015, cat.no. 97: 

FORMER INV. NOS.: 482 (M. 1804); KM 809.

TECHNICAL NOTES: Labelled on verso: “Luti. Nozze Samaritane
Mart. 482”. The support is a single piece of medium-coarse,
plain-weave linen fabric. It has been lined with glue onto a coarse,
sparsely woven linen canvas and mounted with staples on a Martelli
strainer. This was probably done in Italy before shipping to
Sweden. The ground is red and covers the whole support, including
the tacking edges. There is extensive retouching. Some of the figure
outlines have been reinforced. The painting is in fair condition.
Documented restorations: 1953: Described as in need of restoration;
1984: Consolidation of paint layer. Removal of varnish. Filling
of paint losses, retouching and varnish.

PROVENANCE: Martelli 1804.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Sander 1872–76, III, p. 138, no. 482 (as Luti).

The Martelli inventory includes six paintings
under the name of the Florentine artist Benedetto
Luti, three of them with subjects from the
life of Christ, namely Christ in Gethsemane, the
Wedding at Cana and the Supper at Emmaus. In
Louis Masreliez’s 1810 list of the collection, with
concordance numbers referring to Martelli’s
original inventory, we find eight paintings given to
Luti, seven of which were identified in the original
list. The painting with the unidentified motif was
listed separately by Masreliez among the works
that were delivered to Sweden without having previously
been announced by Martelli. The present
painting, whose subject does not appear in either
the 1798 or the 1810 list, may be identified with this
surplus one.

As to the motif and its composition, the Nationalmuseum
painting is indebted to the oils on
copper featuring the Supper at Emmaus and Christ
in the House of Simon the Pharisee which Luti
painted for Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni in 1707–08.¹
The small scale of the pair suggests a particular
use for a more private collecting context, which
became increasingly important in the course of the
18th century. The Ottoboni paintings also offered
compositional novelties that appealed to the
market. In comparison with the large-scale version
of the subject, painted in 1692–1693 and acquired
on the market in 1757 by Sir Nathaniel Curzon of
Kedleston Hall, the smaller versions show a less
formal structure and greater emphasis on details
and human sentiment. The small size challenged
the artist’s ability to handle the drama of the scene
and a relatively large number of protagonists.

Luti’s proficient bottega produced a great many
versions of the Ottoboni paintings,² of which the
Nationalmuseum canvas is one. Some of the figures,
in particular that of Christ and the apostle
on the right-hand side, bear an evident similarity
to Luti’s manner. Yet there are too many weak
details to allow the possibility of his authorship:
the crowded scene is crammed into the composition,
and the presence of food, in the specific
natura morta style that had brought novelty to
Luti’s handling of this particular motif, is indicated
with little skill. A typical bottega product
and fully in line with the idea of a canonical Luti
work, it fits perfectly into the collection of Nicola
Martelli.
sne

1 Maffeis 2012, p. 157. The paintings are in the collection of
the Accademia di San Luca in Rome.
2 Maffeis 2012, p. 157 [End]

Magdalena vid Kristi fötter