Description
THE PROPERTY OF A LADY OF TITLE
THE PENITENT MAGDALENE IN A LANDSCAPE
measurements note
126.4 by 97.7 cm.; 49 3/4 by 38 1/2 in.
signed lower centre: CARLO CALIARI./ VERONESE. F
oil on canvas, in an elaborate Italian carved and gilt wood frame
PROVENANCE
Casa Lante, Rome, from which acquired by the brothers Pietro (1760-1833) and Vincenzo Camuccini (1771-1844), for their collection in Rome;
Sold by Vincenzo's son, Giovanni Battista Camuccini, as part of a group of 74 pictures to Algernon Percy (1792-1865), 4th Duke of Northumberland, in 1853;
Thence by family descent at Alnwick Castle until sold by Hugh Algernon Percy (1914-1988), 10th Duke of Northumberland;
With Thomas Agnew & Sons Ltd., London, from whom purchased by the father of the present owner in the 1950s.
EXHIBITED
Newcastle, 1887, no. 825 (lent by Algernon George Percy, 6th Duke of Northumberland).
LITERATURE
T. Barberi, Catalogo ragionato della Galleria Camuccini in Roma descritto da Tito Barberi, unpublished MS. catalogue of c.1851 held in the Alnwick Castle Archives, listed under "Camera Quarta", no. 1;
G. Waagen, Galleries and Cabinets of Art in Great Britain, London 1857, p. 469 (as "CARLO CAGLIARI.-The repentant Magdalen. Signed. From the Casa Lante. A good picture for him");
A. Graves, A Century of Loan Exhibitions 1813-1912, vol. V, second addenda and indexes, London 1915, p. 2226;
Helen, 8th Duchess of Northumberland, Catalogue of Pictures in the Collection of the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland, privately printed in 1930, cat. no. 56, reproduced plate 39, and also reproduced in a photograph taken by the Duchess (no. 15), as hanging in the Music Room at Alnwick Castle.
NOTE
The son of Paolo Veronese, Carlo Caliari (called Carletto) was the most talented member of his father's workshop. His paintings are stylistically similar to those of his father's but Carletto's painting technique is less confident and arguably more delicate: the hair of the Magdalene and putti as well as the foliage and vegetation in the present work are fine examples of this. The painting has much in common with Veronese's mature works and parallels can also be found in Carletto's own ~uvre: the saint's upper body is extremely close to that of the Magdalene in Carletto's altarpiece of Virgin and Child in glory with Saints in the Uffizi, Florence.1 He used the figure again, in reverse, for his Hagar in the wilderness in the John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, which was formerly ascribed to Veronese on the basis of a preparatory drawing attributed to him.2
This painting was amongst 74 pictures from the Camuccini collection in Rome, sold to Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland, in 1853. The whole collection cost 125,000 Roman scudi, and included masterpieces by Raphael, Bellini, Guercino and Reni amongst others.3 The collection was formed by the two brothers Pietro and Vincenzo Camuccini, both of whom were dealers, restorers and painters in their own right. From 1851 the pictures hung in the 16th-century Palazzo Cesi in Rome and Tito Barberi's manuscript catalogue of the collection should be read as a visitor's guided tour of the palazzo, listing the pictures in each room. The Carletto is mentioned as hanging in the "Camera Quarta", no. 1, and Barberi notes a few biographical anecdotes along with a brief description of the painting.4 The provenance in the typed manuscript is given as "Casa Sante" but it is probably a mis-transcription of Barberi's original handwriting and should read "Casa Lante", as noted by Waagen.
Algernon Percy, 4th Duke of Northumberland, enjoyed a successful career in the Navy, rising to the ranks of Commander and Admiral by the time he retired. He travelled extensively in Europe, Africa and the East, and it was after a trip to Italy that he decided to undertake the restoration of Alnwick Castle, with the help of the celebrated italian architect Commendatore Luigi Canina (director of the Musei Capitolini in Rome) and of Giovanni Mantiroli after Canina's death in 1856. Building work began in circa 1854 and it was apparently "in order to complete its character of an Italian Renaissance palace" that the Duke had negotiated the purchase of the Camuccini collection the previous year.5 The painting remained at Alnwick for the latter half of the 19th and into the 20th century where it hung in the Music Room, as is proven by its presence in a photograph taken circa 1930 by Helen Magdalen, 8th Duchess of Northumberland (1886-1965), wife of Alan Ian Percy (1880-1930), 8th Duke of Northumberland.
1. L. Crosato Larcher, "Per Carletto Caliari", in Arte Veneta, vol. XXI, 1967, p. 113, reproduced fig. 126.
2. P. Tomory, Catalogue of The Italian Paintings before 1800. The John & Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota 1976, pp. 82 and 84, cat. no. 80, reproduced p. 83.
3. Details of the transaction are listed in a letter from Emil Braun to the Duke on 19th September 1853, although the pictures did not arrive until 1856. The collection included: Raphael's Madonna of the Pinks (National Gallery, London); Giovanni Bellini's Feast of the Gods (National Gallery of Art, Washington); Guercino's Esther before Ahasuereus (University of Michigan Museum of Art, Ann Arbor); and Reni's Crucifixion (Alnwick Castle). See N. Penny, "Raphael's 'Madonna dei Garofani' rediscovered", in The Burlington Magazine, vol. CXXXIV, no. 1067, February 1992, pp. 76ff..
4. "Carlo Caliari detto Carletto figlio a Paolo Veronese: nacque nel 1570, morì nel 1596. La Maddalena. Sul sasso su cui sta inginocchiata la Santa leggesi Carlo Carliari Veronese F. Era di Casa Sante. Rari sono i dipinti di quest' artista, che nella corte sua vita in scarso numero ne condusse, sebbene quando rimase orfano all'età di 18 anni, fosse tale nell'arte, da poter compire alcuni lavori, dal padre lasciati imperfetti. Fini i brevi e laboriosi giorni consunto da soverchie fatighe".
5. Helen, 8th Duchess of Northumberland, see Literature, p. 27.
