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June 06, 2006
Titian's Penitent Magdalene
Of all the painted and sculpted Mary Magdalenes, Titian’s nude Magdalen is the most erotic. No wonder that the great Venetian master completed at least five copies just for the Mantuan court!
Imagine a young woman with long auburn tresses, cascading in turbulent waterfalls around the smooth promontory of alabaster breasts thrust erotically towards the onlooker. An itzy-pitzy, tiny alabaster jar in the left bottom corner identifies her in the painting. Called Penitent, the red around her beautiful eyes looks like Hollywood paint. She looks no more holy than does Titian’s Danaë with her legs spread wide invoke scholarly thoughts.
The Palazzo Pitti version of the Magdalene, signed “TITIANUS” and painted ca. 1535, was one of several lascivious images that inspired Cardinal Alessandro Farnese to order a nude portrait of his own concubine Angela, adjusted by Titian to look like Danaë for the sake of propriety. Ten years later, the twenty-five-year old man with no desire to take his major orders--if he could help it--already enjoyed the tremendous prestige of the Vice-Chancellor of the Roman Catholic church. The lucrative post, accompanied by countless more, made the grandson of Pope Paul III just about the richest man in Rome.
Isn’t life wonderful when a young man’s grandfather is one of the most corrupt and nepotistic popes in the history of the Catholic Church?
When rewriting the first lengthy draft of Maddalena, a tale of oltramontani, the northern artists who crossed the Alps to study art in Rome, I was struck by the obvious. I had to shorten the story to focus on the tale of the lecherous, worldly Cardinal. And long after it was complete, I wasn’t surprised to see him described thus in As Above, So Below, Rudy Rucker’s wonderful tale about the Flemish artist Peter Bruegel (p. 30).
“Cardinal Farnese ordered these [miniatures] as presents for his three mistresses.”
“You know the Pope and the cardinals personally” marveled de Vos in his smooth Latin. “Are they good or are they evil?”
“They’re Romans.” … “Crooked and devious. Rotten to the core.”
On page 37, Rudy Rucker completes the picture:
“Using a great iron key, the Cardinal unlocked a gate and the little party entered the building’s enclosed courtyard. A trio of voluptuous women appeared on the second floor balcony, calling lewdly down to the Cardinal. The Cardinal sent Clovio’s three boxed paintings upstairs with an assistant, and then his three mistresses began blowing kisses down to him. Actually, it was more than kisses, they were gesturing to him with their tongues, yes, their full-lipped mouths were wide open and their fat tongues licked about. The plump trulls tried to outdo each other in their bawdy display of licentiousness: cooing, giggling, and showing off their breasts and legs. The Cardinal seemed tempted to lug his carcass up to join them, but he still had his requiem mass to do, so it was onward to the Sistine Chapel (p.36).”
As for Titian’s Penitent Magdalene, I have a confession to make, and this is as good a place as any to make it. I have the Palazzo Pitti version, painted for the Duke of Urbino, Federico Maria della Rovere, and the father of Alessandro’s brother-in-law, hanging in Alessandro’s bedroom in Maddalena. Even it's a fictional story, I regret my error in the author’s comments. But, I edited the book in a horrible time of my life, when soon after one family member fell prey to cancer, my dear father was also diagnosed with the terminal disease. No wonder things got jumbled in my own head.
Titian’s Penitent Magdalene still feels right in my story. Who knows, one of his many copies could have found a way to the real cardinal’s secret bedroom. And Titian did paint a less licentious, clothed version for the aging cardinal. By that time, Alessandro Farnese must have feared that not all the masses and all the indulgences could save him from meeting his papal grandfather in hell.
Posted by Eva Siroka at June 6, 2006 12:17 PM