1031. MARY MAGDALENE.
Giovanni Girolamo Savoldo (Brescian: about 1480-1548).
Savoldo, "an excellent amateur, who was apparently first a pupil of Romanino, then of Giovanni Bellini, and later of Titian"[200] (Morelli: Borghese Gallery, p. 246). "He visited Florence in 1508, and we find him enrolled as master in the Painters' Guild there; his stay cannot, however, have been of long duration, as none of his works known to us betray the slightest Florentine influence" (id. German Galleries, p. 408). "His works," says Sir F. Burton, "display a distinct individuality, the result of tendencies inherent in his nature. The romantic element, already developed in Venetian art, shows itself strongly in his passion for scenes of early dawn and late sunset and effects of night illuminated by fire. His human types are pleasing with a certain grave dignity. His colouring is on the whole colder than that of his contemporaries of the Veneto-Brescian School, and his flesh tints are adust and sombre, especially in his male figures; nor are his draperies generally brilliant in colour, although he delighted in the sheen of silken stuffs, contrasting it with the kind of twilight which pervades many of his pictures." "His landscapes in sacred subjects make a profound impression of silent wonder and devotion. They seem to palpitate in sympathy with the deeds they witness, instead of being mere scenic backgrounds. In the Berlin Deposition, for instance, the sky is lurid and blood-stained; in the Adoration at Turin the shepherds seem to be stealing noiselessly along, afraid of causing the least disturbance in the hush and awe of the morning" (Mary Logan's Guide to Hampton Court, in which collection there is a picture by Savoldo of a Madonna and Child, dated 1527). Savoldo's pictures are rare, and often pass under other names. He was, says Vasari (iv. 535), "a fanciful and ingenious person, what he has accomplished well meriting to be highly commended." An important altar-piece, bearing his signature, is in the Brera at Milan, and a beautiful "Adoration of the Shepherds" is in the Church of St. Giobbe at Venice.
"A vein of realism, combined with the mystery of Savoldo's deep colours and half-lights, is seen in the picture of a woman shrouded in a mantle in the National Gallery" (Layard, ii. 585). The picture agrees with the description given by Ridolfi of a "Magdalene," "a celebrated work of which there are many copies." A very similar picture, signed with Savoldo's name, is in the Berlin Gallery. The Magdalen is here approaching the sepulchre, before which is a vase of ointment on a square stone—for she had "bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. And very early in the morning ... they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun" (Mark xvi. 1, 2). Notice the daring anachronism in the Venetian background, which "gives with exquisite truth a very early dawn upon the Giudecca."