Crucified Christ and Mary Magdalene – Antique Painting

The work, published by Filippo Maria Ferro in a monograph dedicated to Giuseppe Antonio Pianca, can be dated to between the 1740s and 1750s, during the painter’s full artistic maturity. Although this phase is marked by great creativity, it still retains the master’s clearly recognizable stylistic traits—above all his distinctive expressiveness—allowing the attribution to be made without any doubt. References to Northern European painting also emerge, with echoes of Venetian and Central European examples; however, particularly crucial are the exchanges with Genoa. From Pianca’s association with that artistic milieu derives his interest in Rubensian and Van Dyckian models, filtered through other artists active there, such as Stefano Magnasco.

This is the stylistic context to which the canvas under examination belongs. It previously formed part of a private collection in a noble residence in Lombardy, where it was kept together with two other works by Pianca: a Rest on the Flight into Egypt and a Holy Family with the Infant Saint John. The composition of our painting, focusing on the two main figures, is inspired by a work by Jacob Jordaens engraved by Schelte Bolswert; Christ, moreover, takes into account—as a counterpart—a print after Rubens.