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Identification and Creation
Object Number
1924.27
People
Sandro Botticelli (Alessandro Filipepi), Italian (Florence,
Italy 1444/45 - 1510 Florence, Italy)
Title
Mystic Crucifixion
Other Titles
Alternate Title: Saint Mary Magdalene at the Foot of the
Cross / Crucifixion with the Penitent Magdalen and an
Angel
Classification
Paintings
Work Type
painting
Date
c. 1500
Places
Creation Place: Europe, Italy, Tuscany, Florence
Culture
Italian
Physical Descriptions
Medium
Tempera and oil on canvas (transferred from panel)
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Dimensions
72.4 x 51.4 cm (28 1/2 x 20 1/4 in.)
framed: 90.2 x 68.3 x 7.6 cm (35 1/2 x 26 7/8 x 3 in.)
Provenance
Palazzo Riccardi, Florence. Emile Peyre (Paris).
Edouard Aynard (Lyon, c. 1900-1913), purchased in
Florence, sold by his heirs. [Georges Petit, Paris,
Edouard Aynard sale, December 1-4, 1913, lot 38, not
sold]. Marczell von Nemes, Munich, until 1922. [F.
Kleinberger Galleries (by 1924)] sold; to Edward
Forbes, sold; to Fogg Art Museum, 1924.
Note: The painting was not in the Nemes collection
between 1922 and 1924.
Acquisition and Rights
Credit Line
Harvard Art Museums/Fogg Museum, Friends of the
Fogg Art Museum Fund
Accession Year
1924
Object Number
1924.27
Division
European and American Art
Contact
[email protected]
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Descriptions
Label Text: 32Q: 2540 Renaissance , written 2014
In the 1490s, Florence came under the sway of the
magnetic Dominican preacher Girolamo Savonarola.
The century had been one of unprecedented
innovations in art and literature, but also of loosening
social mores and rampant church corruption.
Savonarola railed against immorality and unorthodoxy,
warning that Judgment Day was imminent and that
Florence would be punished for its sins.
Botticelli’s brother was a follower of Savonarola, and
the artist also came under his sway. In this painting,
perhaps made for his own use, Botticelli incorporates
themes from Savonarola’s incendiary sermons.
Firebrands and weapons rain down from black storm
clouds, and an angel of justice raises his sword to slay
the marzocco, the small lion that is the emblem of
Florence. The purified city is shown in the background,
bathed in light emanating from God the Father, as
white angels chase the clouds away. Mary Magdalene
desperately clutches the foot of the cross, while a wolf,
symbolizing clerical vice, flees from under her robe.
Publication History
J. A. Crowe and G. B. Cavalcaselle, A history of painting
in Italy, Umbria, Florence and Siena, from the second to
the sixteenth century, ed. Langton Douglas, J. Murray
(London, 1903-1914), vol. IV, p. 271
Herbert P. Horne, Alessandro Filipepi, commonly called
Sandro Botticelli, painter of Florence, George Bell and
Sons, Ltd. (London, 1908), pp. 301-302, repr.
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Encyclopaedia Britannica
(1910), vol. IV, under "Botticelli"
Adolfo Venturi, Storia dell'arte Italiana, U. Hoepli (Milan,
1911), VII, part 1, p. 641
4 of 12
Collection Edouard Aynard. Catalogue des tableaux
anciens., auct. cat., Galerie Georges Petit (Paris,
Dcember 1-4, 1913), pp. 48-50, repr. as no. 38
Wilhelm von Bode, Sandro Botticelli, Propyläen Verlag,
Berlin (Berlin, Germany, 1921), pp. 176-177; repr. p. 173
Raimond Van Marle, The Development of the Italian
Schools of Painting, M. Nijhoff Publishers (The Hague,
1923-1938), XII, p. 13; pp. 184-185, repr. as fig. 110
Frederick W. Coburn, "In the World of Art", Boston
Sunday Herald (August 3 1924), repr.
[Reproduction only], The Harvard Crimson, (January 23
1925)., repr. in b/w p. 5
Yukio Yashiro, Sandro Botticelli, The Medici Society
(London and Boston, 1925), vol. I, pp. 201-202, 231; vol.
III, pl. CCLX
Adolfo Venturi, Botticelli, G. Crès et Cie (Paris, France,
1926), pp. 16, 75, 97
Wilhelm von Bode, Botticelli: des meisters werke in 155
abbildungen, Deutsche Verlags-Anstalt (1926), p.
XXXVIII, repr. as pl. 92
Fogg Art Museum Handbook, Fogg Art Museum
(Cambridge, MA, 1927), pp. 33-35, repr.
Yukio Yashiro, Sandro Botticelli and the Florentine
Renaissance, Hale, Cushman & Flint, Inc. and The
Medici Society (Boston and London, 1929), pp. 208209, 221, 248; repr. as pl. CXLIV, CXLV
Girolamo Savonarola, Prediche e scritti; con
introduzione, commento, nota bibliografica e uno
studio sopra "L’influenza del Savonarola su la
letteratura e l’arte del quattrocento" di Mario Ferrara,
U. Hoepli (Milan, Italy, 1930), pp. 389-391
Fogg Art Museum Handbook, Fogg Art Museum
(Cambridge, MA, 1931), pp. 40-43, repr.
Lionello Venturi, Pitture Italiane in America, U. Hoepli
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(Milan, 1931), repr. as pl. CXCIX
M. Ferrara, "Una tela del Botticelli d'isparazione
Savonaroliana", Rivista dell'instituto nazionale di
archaelogia e storia dell'arte (1932), IV, part I, pp. 8290, repr.
Bernard Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance:
a list of the principal artists and their works, with an
index of places, The Clarendon Press (Oxford, England,
1932), p. 101
Lionello Venturi, Italian Paintings in America, E. Weyhe
Gallery (New York, NY, 1933), II, repr. as pl. 257
Fogg Art Museum Handbook, Fogg Art Museum
(Cambridge, MA, 1936), pp. 64-67, ill.
Bernard Berenson, Pitture italiane (Milan, 1936), p. 87
Carlo Gamba, Botticelli, U. Hoepli (Milan, Italy, 1937),
pp. 198-199, repr. as pl. 183
Lionello Venturi, Botticelli, Phaidon Press (Vienna,
Austria, 1937), p. 24, repr.
Jacques Mesnil, Botticelli, A. Michel (Paris, France,
1938), pp. 169-171, 224; repr. as pl. XCVIII
Sergio Bettini, Botticelli, Istituto italiano d'arti grafiche
(Bergamo, Italy, 1942), p. 40, repr. as pl. 138
John Pope-Hennessey, Sandro Botticelli: 'The Nativity'
in the National Gallery, London, National Gallery
(London, England, 1947), pp. 5, 7-8, 12, repr. as fig. 3
Anthony Bertram, Sandro Botticelli, The Studio
Publications Incorporated (London and New York,
1948), no. XLVIII, repr.
Luisa Vertova, Botticelli, Electa Editrice (Florence, Italy,
1949), p. 57, repr.
David M. Robb, The Harper History of Painting: The
Occidental Tradition, Harper and Brothers Publishers
(New York, NY, 1951), p. 272; repr. p. 271 as fig. 155
John Ives Sewall, A History of Western Art, Henry Holt
6 of 12
and Co. (New York, NY, 1953), p. 663
Giulio Argan, Botticelli, Skira (Lausanne, 1957), p. 128,
repr. p. 126
Roberto Salvini, Tutta la Pittura del Botticelli, Rizzoli
(Milan, 1958), vol. 2, pp. 66-67, repr. as pl. 119
Bernard Berenson, Italian Pictures of the Renaissance:
Florentine School, Phaidon Press (London, 1963), vol. I,
p. 33; repr. vol. II as pl. 1095
Vincent Cronin, The Florentine Renaissance, Folio
Society (London, 1967), p. 286, repr. in color between
pp. 244-245
Edward Waldo Forbes, Yankee Visionary, Fogg Art
Museum (Cambridge, MA, 1971), pp. 128-131, repr. in
b/w; p. 133; X-ray repr. p. 135
John Canaday, "Unlifting Some Familiar Faces at Yale",
The New York Times (June 11 1972), section 2, p. 21
Burton B. Fredericksen and Federico Zeri, Census of
Pre-Nineteenth-Century Italian Paintings in North
American Public Collections, Harvard University Press
(Cambridge, MA, 1972), p. 33
Yoshiro Masui, Botticelli, Zauho Press/Editions
Shueisha (Tokyo, 1976), p. 121; repr. in color, pl. 59
Ronald M. Steinberg, Fra Girolamo Savonarola,
Florentine Art, and Renaissance Historiography, Ohio
University Press (Athens, OH, 1977), p. 61; repr. in b/w p.
70
Yukio Yashiro, Sandro Botticelli, Iwanami Shoten
(Tokyo, 1977), no. 64, repr. in b/w, with detail
Ronald Lightbown, Sandro Botticelli, University of
California Press (Berkeley and Los Angeles, CA, 1977),
vol. II, no. B81 in "Complete Catalogue," p. 94; repr. in
vol. I as pl. 48
Everett Fahy, "Italian Painting Before 1500", Apollo
(May 1978), vol. 107, no. 195, pp. 377-388, p. 388, repr.
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p. 388 as fig. 12
Kristin A. Mortimer, Harvard University Art Museums: A
Guide to the Collections, Harvard University Art
Museums/Abbeville Press (Cambridge, MA; New York,
NY, 1985), no. 173, p. 153, repr.
Samuel Y. Edgerton Jr., Pictures and Punishment,
Cornell University Press (Ithaca NY and London, 1985),
repr. in b/w as no. 9, p. 44
Ronald Lightbown, Sandro Botticelli: Life and Work,
Abbeville Press (New York, NY, 1989), pp. 242-247,
repr. in color, pl. 100
Caterina Caneva, Botticelli: Catalogo Completo dei
Dipinti, exh. cat., Cantini Editore (Florence, Italy, 1990),
no. 67, p. 126; repr. in color
Edgar Peters Bowron, European Paintings Before 1900
in the Fogg Art Museum: A Summary Catalogue
including Paintings in the Busch-Reisinger Museum ,
Harvard University Art Museums (Cambridge, MA,
1990), pp. 99, 318, repr. b/w cat. no. 627
Jane Dillenberger, Image and Spirit in Sacred and
Secular Art, Crossroad Press (New York, NY, 1990), p.
37; repr. in b/w p. 38 as fig. 21
John Graham, "Simonetta's Portrait Validated",
Tableau (February 1991), vol. 13, no. 4, pp. 68-71, repr.
as fig. II-4 (article unpaginated)
Patrick Macey, "Infiamma il mio cor: Savonarolan
Laude by and for Dominican nuns in Tuscany", The
Crannied Wall: Women, Religion, and the Arts in Early
Modern Europe, ed. Craig Monson, University of
Michigan Press (Ann Arbor, MI, 1992), repr. in b/w as
fig. 5, p. 180
Maria Laura Testi Cristiani, Botticelli, Editoriale Giorgio
Mondadori (Milan, Italy, 1992), pp. 9, 18; repr. p. 80 as
fig. 58
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Craig Monson, ed., The Crannied Wall: Women,
Religion, and the Arts in Early Modern Europe,
University of Michigan Press (Ann Arbor, Michigan,
1992), p. 180 repr. b/w as fig. 5
Josephine Jungic, "Raphael at Bologna and
Savonarola's Prophecies of a 'Renovatio Ecclesiae'", Art
History (December 1993), vol. 16, no. 4, p. 584; repr. in
b/w as fig. 16, p. 585
Barbara Deimling, Sandro Botticelli 1444/45 - 1510,
Benedikt Taschen Verlag (Cologne, Germany, 1993),
no. 80, p. 95; repr. in color p. 80
Margaret Starbird, The Woman with the Alabaster Jar,
Bear & Co. Publishing (Santa Fe, NM, 1993), repr. in
color as pl. 20
Rab Hatfield, "Botticelli's 'Mystic Nativity,' Savonarola
and the Millenium", Journal of the Warburg and
Courtauld Institutes (1995), 58, pp. 88-114, p. 112, repr.
as fig. 40
Paul Joannides, "Late Botticelli: Archaism and
Ideology", Arte Cristiana (May 1995-June 1995), fasc.
768, vol. LXXXIII, pp. 163-178, pp. 167-169, repr. in b/w
as fig. 7, p. 168
Deborah Weisgall, "An Elegant Flower in a Modest
Garden", The New York Times (February 2 1997), p. 40
Laurence Kanter and Hilliard T. Goldfarb, Botticelli's
Witness: Changing Style in a Changing Florence, exh.
cat., Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (Boston, MA,
1997), pp. 51-53, repr. p. 53
Alexandra Grömling and Tilman Lingesleben,
Alessandro Botticelli, 1444/45-1510, Könemann
Verlagsgesellschaft (Köln, Germany, 1998), pp. 98-101,
fig. 110, repr. in color on p. 100
Anneke Bokern and Petra Gördüren, Die Letzten Dinge:
Jahrhundertwende und Jahrhundertende in der
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Bildenden Kunst um 1500 und 2000, Gebr. Mann
Verlag (Berlin, 1999), p. 35; repr. in color as pl. 9, p. 59
Carol Plazzotta, Kingdom Come: Botticelli's "Mystic
Nativity", brochure, National Gallery (London, England,
1999), repr. in color
Giancarlo Fiorenza, "Dosso Dossi, Garofalo, and the
Costabili Polyptych: Imaging Spiritual Authority", The
Art Bulletin (June 2000), vol. 82, no. 2, pp. 252-279, p.
271; repr. as fig. 22
Rev. Dr. David Brown, Discipleship and Imagination:
Christian Tradition and Truth, Oxford University Press
(NY) (Oxford, England, 2000), p. 46; repr. in b/w as pl. 1,
with extensive caption
Sebastiano Gentile, ed., Sandro Botticelli: Pittore della
Divina Commedia, exh. cat., Scuderie Papali al
Quirinale (Rome, Italy, 2000), pp. 162-163, repr. in color
as no. 4.16
Katherine L. Jansen, The Making of the Magdalen:
Preaching and Popular Devotion in the later Middle
Ages, Princeton University Press (Princeton NJ, 2000),
pp. 194-196, repr. in b/w as fig. 33
Edgar Wind, The Religious Symbolism of Michelangelo:
The Sistine Ceiling, Oxford University Press (NY)
(Oxford, England and New York NY, 2000), pp. 28-29;
repr. as fig. 170
"Sandro Botticelli", Geijutsu Shincho (Japan, March
2001), repr. in color p. 62
Samuel Y. Edgerton Jr., Theaters of Conversion:
Religious Architecture and Indian Artisans in Colonial
Mexico, University of New Mexico Press (Albuquerque,
NM, 2001), p. 24, repr. in b/w as fig. 1.5
Important Old Master Paintings, auct. cat., Christie's,
New York (New York, NY, January 24 2003), under no.
75
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Yves Bonnefoy, L'Arrière Pays, Gallimard (Paris, 2003),
pp. 56, 111; repr. in color p. 71
Giovanni Fanelli, Brunelleschi's Cupola: Past and
Present of an Architectural Masterpiece, Mandragora
(Florence, Italy, 2004), detail repr. p. 47, fig. 22
Alessandro Cecchi, Botticelli, Federico Motta Editore
(Milan, 2005), pp. 334-335, repr. in color p. 336
Hans Korner, Botticelli, DuMont Literatur und Kunst
Verlag (2006), pp. 376-377, repr.
Tracey O'Shaughnessy, "Benedict: The man who can?",
The Republica-American (April 25, 2008), Repr. in
color: Section D, Page 1
Francesca Bewer, A Laboratory for Art: Harvard's Fogg
Museum and the Emergence of Conservation in
America, 1900-1950, Harvard Art Museum/Yale
University Press (Cambridge, MA, 2010), p. 106-107, fig.
3.15
Alison Brown, Medicean and Savonarolan Florence: The
Interplay of Politics, Humanism, and Religion, Brepols
(Turnhout, Belgium, 2011), repr. on cover (detail)
Stefan Weppelmann and Ruben Rebmann, ed., The
Botticelli Renaissance, exh. cat., Gemäldegalerie Berlin
(Berlin, 2015), cat. no. 132, p. 282, repr.
Mark Evans and Stefan Weppelmann, Botticelli
Reimagined, exh. cat., V & A Publishing (London, 2016),
cat. no. 132, p. 282, repr.
Exhibition History
Italian Primitives: the Case History of a Collection and
its Conservation, Yale University Art Gallery, 04/01/1972
- 09/01/1972
Master Paintings from the Fogg Collection, Fogg Art
Museum, Cambridge, 04/13/1977 - 08/31/1977
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Florence and Its Image, Forte Belvedere, Florence,
06/29/1994 - 10/30/1994
Botticelli's Witness: Changing Style in a Changing
Florence, Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston,
01/24/1997 - 05/11/1997
Sandro Botticelli: pittore della Divina Commedia,
Scuderie Papali al Quirinale, Rome, 09/20/2000 12/03/2000
Re-View: S422-423 Western Art of the Middle Ages &
Renaissance, Harvard Art Museums/Arthur M. Sackler
Museum, Cambridge, 08/16/2008 - 06/18/2011
32Q: 2540 Renaissance, Harvard Art Museums,
Cambridge, 11/01/2014 - 07/24/2015
The Botticelli Renaissance, Gemäldegalerie Berlin,
Berlin, 09/25/2015 - 01/24/2016; Victoria and Albert
Museum, London, 03/05/2016 - 07/03/2016
Subjects and Contexts
Google Art Project
This record has been reviewed by the curatorial staff
but may be incomplete. Our records are frequently
revised and enhanced. For more information please
contact the Division of European and American Art at
[email protected]
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