Mary Magdalene (Young Florentine Woman portrayed as the Magdalene), Agnolo Bronzino

Exhibition Label:
"Giorgio Vasari and Court Culture in Late Renaissance Italy," Sep-2012, Sally Cornelison and Susan Earle
In this painting the penitent sinner Mary Magdalene holds her traditional attribute-an object that identifies her-in her right hand. The attribute is an alabaster jar containing the ointment she used to anoint Christ’s feet after bathing them with her tears and drying them with her hair (Luke 7:36-50). The painting is attributed to a follower of Agnolo Bronzino, a gifted artist who, like Vasari, was court painter to Cosimo I de’ Medici. Its composition is derived from the figure of a male youth holding a chalice (pictured here) in the Lamentation (circa 1540) Bronzino painted for the chapel of Eleonora of Toledo, Cosimo I’s Spanish consort, in Florence’s Palazzo Vecchio. The Magdalene’s twisting pose, elongated neck, slim fingers, and jeweled headpiece are mannered elements that are common to the period in which the painting was produced. Similar elegant pictorial flourishes and postures are evident in Vasari’s Christ Carrying the Cross.

Exhibition Label:
"Corpus," Apr-2012, Celka Straughn
Is this beguiling image one of Mary Magdalene in the guise of “The Lady”? Or is it a young Florentine, costumed all’antica in loose, flowing garments, playing the role of the biblical figure? The elegantly clad and coiffed young woman points at an alabaster ointment jar, an attribute associated with Mary Magadalene as the bearer of oil and spices to anoint the crucified body of Jesus. In 15th- and 16th-century Florence, clothing and its accoutrements served as influential tools for the skillful creation of aristocracy. Strict sumptuary laws curtailed the show of such finery. However, young women under the age of 17 were exempt, and these nubile maidens not only displayed the family honor, but also represented valuable assets to forge strategic marriage alliances.

Label 2009:
Agnolo Bronzino, a prominent painter in the Florentine artistic scene in the mid-1500s, is often associated with Mannerism, a style typified by elongated and enigmatic figures. Bronzino was widely praised for his style and technical ability and eventually became the court artist and decorator to Cosimo I, the first Medici duke of Florence. Because of his success, Bronzino ran a large workshop of assistants and pupils and prompted the rise of a considerable number of followers and imitators.
This panel by one of Bronzino’s followers under¬went extensive conservation and restoration in 1956. The process involved removing the painting’s damaged wooden support and reattaching it to a new panel. Underneath the portrait seen today restorers discovered another painting, which appeared to be a rough copy of Bronzino’s Holy Family, currently in the collection of the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, Austria. This recycling of expensive prepared wooden panels frequently occurred in the Renaissance.