In this article three drawings are discussed in connexion with the lost decoration of the vault and lunettes of the chapel of St Mary Magdalene in the church of the SS. Trinità dei Monti in Rome. The decoration was carried out by Giulio Romano and Giovan Francesco Penni around 1520-1522 for a courtesan, possibly a Lucrezia Scanatoria mentioned in two archival sources, and is presently known only through the descriptions in Vasari’s Lives and Mariette’s later manuscript notes. With the help of these drawings, the author intends to reconstruct more precisely the original aspect of the vault, as well as to demonstrate that the surviving fresco representing Mary Magdalene borne by Angels, now in the National Gallery in London, was not part of the vault but decorated the lunette to the right, and that the Evangelists painted on the vault did not correspond to Agostino Veneziano’s engravings of 1518. Furthermore, the two Angels holding torches formerly in the lunette above the altar, which were detached with other surviving frescoes in 1810 and entered the collection of Luciano Bonaparte, can be traced up to 1897, when they disappeared after an auction sale in Paris. Hopefully, an etching of 1812 might help to find them. Finally, a promising investigation regarding the actual identity of the patron had to be postponed to 2021, due to the closure of the Archivio di Stato of Rome.
Giulio Romano, Giovan Francesco Penni e la cappella di santa Maria Maddalena nella SS. Trinità dei Monti: nuove osservazioni sulla decorazione e la sua committente
Vannugli
2020-01-01
Abstract
In this article three drawings are discussed in connexion with the lost decoration of the vault and lunettes of the chapel of St Mary Magdalene in the church of the SS. Trinità dei Monti in Rome. The decoration was carried out by Giulio Romano and Giovan Francesco Penni around 1520-1522 for a courtesan, possibly a Lucrezia Scanatoria mentioned in two archival sources, and is presently known only through the descriptions in Vasari’s Lives and Mariette’s later manuscript notes. With the help of these drawings, the author intends to reconstruct more precisely the original aspect of the vault, as well as to demonstrate that the surviving fresco representing Mary Magdalene borne by Angels, now in the National Gallery in London, was not part of the vault but decorated the lunette to the right, and that the Evangelists painted on the vault did not correspond to Agostino Veneziano’s engravings of 1518. Furthermore, the two Angels holding torches formerly in the lunette above the altar, which were detached with other surviving frescoes in 1810 and entered the collection of Luciano Bonaparte, can be traced up to 1897, when they disappeared after an auction sale in Paris. Hopefully, an etching of 1812 might help to find them. Finally, a promising investigation regarding the actual identity of the patron had to be postponed to 2021, due to the closure of the Archivio di Stato of Rome.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
