Christ in the House of Martha and Mary Magdalene
Christ in the House of Martha and Mary Magdalene
- Artist
- Defendente Ferrari
- Artist Dates
- active c. 1500-1535
- Artist Nationality
- Italian
- Title
- Christ in the House of Martha and Mary Magdalene
- Date
- about 1500-05
- Medium
- tempera and oil on panel
- Dimensions
- 155 x 76.2 cm (61-1/2 x 30 in)
- K Number
- K70
- Repository
- Denver Art Museum
- Accession Number
- 1931.4
- Notes
Provenance
Mario Michela, Piedmont, Italy. Luigi Cora, Turin. Achillito Chiesa. [1] (Count Alessandro Contini Bonacossi [1878-1955] Rome-Florence); sold to Samuel H. Kress [1863-1955] on 16 July 1930; gift 1931 to the Denver Art Museum, no. 1931.4. [1]According to the correspondance between the Curator of European Art at the Denver Museum of Art and a Conservator at the Museum of Palazzo Madama in Turin, the painting was documented in the Chiesa Collection after passing through the Cora collection. The photograph is conserved at the Istituto Centrale per il Catalogo e la Documentazione del Ministero. The photograph of the painting in the Chiesa Collection has been published in "Pittura dal Duecento al Primo Cinquecento nelle fotografie di Girolamo Bombelli", Milan, 1991. It is very likely that the painting was acquired by Contini directly from Chiesa.
Catalogue Entry
Defendente Ferrari
Christ in the House of Martha and Mary Magdalene
K70
Denver, Colo., Denver Art Museum (E-IT-18-XVI-946), since 1931.(1) Wood. 61 1/2 X 30 in. (156.2X 76.2 cm.). Inscribed on the scroll held by Martha: DOMINE NON EST TIBI CVRE QVOD SOROR MEA RE [liquit me solam ministrare?] (Martha's complaint to Christ, from Luke 10:40). Fair condition. A panel of approximately the same size and shape, the Arrival of Mary Magdalene at Marseilles, in the Museo Civico, Turin, was apparently once associated with K70 in a series of scenes from the life of the Magdalen. Their style, close to that of Spanzotti, has involved them in discussions of the collaboration of Spanzotti and Defendente, hinting also at a possibility that there may have been such a collaboration in these panels themselves.(2) This stylistic relationship points to a date between 1510 and 1520 for K70. Church architecture forms the immediate setting for the scene, where Christ is talking to the kneeling Mary Magdalene as Martha approaches with her complaint. The sisters' house is glimpsed in the background, its inhabitants dominated by Martha's bustling figure. Provenance: Contini Bonacossi, Rome. Kress acquisition, 1930.
References
(1) Catalogue by W. E. Suida, 1954, p. 52, as Defendente Ferrari. (2) The problem of collaboration is discussed by V. Viale (Gotico e rinascimento in Piemonte, 1939, p. 94, in connection with the Arrival of Mary Magdalene at Marseilles, which he attributes to Defendente, dates 1510/20, and reproduces as his pl. 377) and W. E. Suida (in Bollettino della Societa Piemontese di Archeologia e di Belle Arti, vol. VIII-XI, 1954-57, pp. 88 f, in connection with the Turin and Denver pictures, attributing them to Defendente and dating them 1510/20). K70 is attributed to Defendente (in ms. opinions) by G. Fiocco, R. Longhi. F. M. Perkins, and A. Venturi.