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Giovanni Battista GAULLI, called "BACICCIO
(Genoa, 1639 - Rome, 1709)
Recto : The Virgin and Child and Saint Mary Magdalene of Pazzi
Verso : Study of drapery
About 1707
Pen and brown ink wash over black stone lines
341 x 250 mm
Provenance: Sotheby's London July 7, 1999, lot 26
Sotheby's London July 5, 2000, lot 130
Bibliography: Francesco Petrucci (ed.), Pittura barocca romana, dal Cavalier d'Arpino a Fratel Pozzo; La collezione Fagiolo, Milano 1999, p.70 (reproduced)
Comparative bibliography: H. Macandrew, D. Graf, Baciccio's Later Drawings: A re-discovered group acquired by the Ashmolean Museum, in "Master Drawings", X, 3, autumn 1972, pp. 231-259, in part. pp. 236, 258, note 8; F. Petrucci, Baciccio. Giovan Battista Gaulli 1639-1709, Roma 2009, p. 637, n. D.85
The absence of the crucifix, the lily and the book, which appeared on the market as a representation of St. Catherine of Siena, leads us to reconsider the iconography of this magnificent leaf. It is true that the two crowns, one of thorns, received by the saint at the same time as the Sacred Heart, and the crown of flowers, symbol of purity, offered and spread by a small angel who pushes it with his foot. This may be an allusion to her refusal to marry, when she declared to her father: "I would rather hand over my head to the executioner than my chastity to a man".
However, the Sacred Heart that she receives from the Virgin through the intercession of an angel is one of the attributes of St. Mary Magdalene of Pazzi beatified in 1626 and canonized in 1669 by Clement IX Rospigliosi.
The composition and graphic style of the sheet lead us to date it to the end of Baciccio's career, around 1707, on the basis of other works that are quite similar, such as The Virgin and Child Appearing to St. Anthony of Padua from the former Ralph Holland collection. The group of the Virgin and Child is also close to the one in the last painting by the artist, which depicts an almost identical composition, but this time with The Mystical Marriage of St. Catherine and also dated 1709.
The ecstatic figure of the holy nun with closed eyes and head slightly tilted back is still very much marked by the expression of the figure of St. Teresa and that of Blessed Ludovica Albertoni sculpted by Bernini, whose main assistant in the field of painting was Gaulli.
