Simone Pignoni (1611 - 1698)
Mary Magdalene
Oil on canvas
112 x 136.5 cm
Private collection
Mary Magdalene, literally translated as
Mary the Magdalene or Mary of Magdala, is a figure in Christianity who,
according to the Bible, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers. She is
said to have witnessed Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. Within the four
Gospels she is named more than most of the apostles. Based on texts of the
early Christian era in the third century, it seems that her status as an
“apostle" rivals even Peter's.
The Gospel
of Luke says seven demons had gone out of her. She is most prominent in the
narrative of the crucifixion of Jesus, at which she was present. She was also
present two days later when, she was, either alone or as a member of a group of
women, the first to testify to the resurrection of Jesus. John 20 and Mark 16:9
specifically name her as the first person to see Jesus after his resurrection.
During the Middle Ages, Mary Magdalene was regarded in
Western Christianity as a repentant prostitute or promiscuous woman, claims not
found in any of the four canonical gospels. More Mary Magdalene
Simone Pignoni (April 17, 1611 – December 16, 1698) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period.
He is best known for painting in a style reminiscent of the morbidly sensual Furini. Reflective of this obsession in his self-portrait, c. 1650, in which he depicts himself building up a plump naked female from a skeleton.
Described as endowed with a "bizarre and amenable intelligence", Pignoni apparently had a late-life conversion to more pious painting. There is one episode recalled that during a serious illness "because in his life he had focused on studying about female forms, and (now) having resigned himself to the impending infinity, his spiritual father urged him to purge those errors with the flame, and once guided by a good disposition, he suddenly was cured by the Lord." Baldinucci's biography of Furini also recorded a similar, near-death renunciation of his art of the naked figure.
Among his more conventional works are a St. Agatha cured by St. Peter (attributed); a St. Louis providing a banquet for the poor (c. 1682); and a Madonna and child in glory with archangels Saints Michael and Raphael in battle armor and San Antonio of Padua. He painted an Allegory of Peace in Palazzo Vecchio. A Penitent Magdalen that has been attributed to Pignoni is found in the Pitti Palace. In San Bartolomeo in Monteoliveto, he painted a Madonna appearing to Blessed Bernardo Tolomeo. More on Simone Pignoni
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