The painting ‘Maria Madalena Penitente’, by Titian (1488-1576), will be exhibited from today at the National Museum of Ancient Art (MNAA) in Lisbon, from the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia.
According to the museum, the painting will be exhibited under the ‘Work Invited’ cycle, which receives works from other institutions, and will be inaugurated in a session scheduled for 18.00.
The Penitent Magdalene theme was treated by the painter Titian in several versions and later popularized through the engraving.
This canvas of the Hermitage of Saint Petersburg, considered by the specialists the best of all – by the tragic expression of the saint and the environment that surrounds it – was maintained by the painter to death, and then sold by the son to the Venetian collector Cristoforo Barbarigo.
Titian was one of the greatest exponents of Italian painting of the sixteenth century, having been promoted to the painter of the Republic of Venice, recalls the MNAA in its online site.
The artist was known for having created, with his portraits, a model of representation of prestige, and was equally excellent in mythological evocations and religious painting.
Created in 1884, the MNAA hosts the most important public collection of ancient art in Portugal, in painting, sculpture, Portuguese and European decorative arts, and from the Portuguese Maritime Expansion, from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.
It is one of the national museums with the highest number of works classified as national treasures.
