![The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John, Saint Jerome, and Saint Mary Magdalene [right panel] by Pietro Perugino](https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Redirect/file/Pietro_Perugino_-_The_Galitzin_Triptych_-_St_Mary_Magdalen_-_WGA17267.jpg&width=1200)
The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John, Saint Jerome, and Saint Mary Magdalene [right panel]
Pietro Perugino·c. 1482/1485
Historical Context
Correggio's Jupiter and Io (c. 1531–32) at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, depicts Jupiter seducing the nymph Io while concealed in a cloud — one of the most celebrated erotic subjects in Correggio's output. The painting's extraordinary treatment of Io's ecstatic expression and the enveloping cloud figure — half presence, half atmosphere — creates an image of sexual ecstasy unlike anything produced by any contemporary painter. Part of the Loves of Jupiter series for the Gonzaga, the work was later censored and cut up before being reassembled. Its influence on subsequent treatments of sensual abandonment was profound, particularly on Baroque painters who studied Correggio's ability to make emotional states — however transgressive — visually luminous.
Technical Analysis
The figures demonstrate Perugino's characteristic smooth modeling and graceful proportions, with clear, harmonious colors and luminous flesh tones. The landscape background matches the central panel in its atmospheric depth and gentle, idealized treatment. The oil technique on transferred panel maintains the refined surface quality.
Provenance
Probably commissioned by Bartolommeo Bartoli (or di Bartolo), Bishop of Cagli [d. 1497];[1] by gift from him to the church of San Domenico, San Gimignano; seized 1796/1797 by Napoleonic troops; acquired 1796/1797 by Dr. Buzzi, and sold soon thereafter to Prince Alexander Mikhailovich Galitzin [1772-1821], Russian ambassador to Rome; by inheritance to his son, Theodore Alexandrovich Galitzin [d. 1848], Palazzo Galitzin, Rome; by inheritance to his nephew, Sergei Mikhailovich Galitzin [1843-1915], Moscow; displayed from 1865 at the Museum of Western European Painting of Prince S.M. Galitzin, Moscow;[2] purchased 1886 with the Galitzin collection by the Imperial Hermitage Gallery, St. Petersburg; purchased April 1931 through (Matthiesen Gallery, Berlin; P. & D. Colnaghi & Co., London and New York; and M. Knoedler & Co., New York and London) by Andrew W. Mellon, Pittsburgh and Washington, D.C.; deeded 5 June 1931 to The A.W. Mellon Educational and Charitable Trust, Pittsburgh;[3] gift 1937 to NGA. [1] The frame on the painting is modern and thus the coats-of-arms decorating it have no bearing on the provenance. [2] A.A. Vasilchikoff, "The Artworks of Raphael in Russsia," _Viestnik iziashnych iskusstv [Fine Arts Herald]_ I, no. 3 (1883): 390-393, provides this history of ownership. He also notes that Buzzi had the French artist Baron François Xavier Fabre treat the picture, and that after Theodore Galitzin's death, the painting languished in a storage closet of his palace until 1862. According to Brüiningk and Somov (E. Brüiningk and Andrei Ivanovich Somov, _Ermitage Impérial. Catalogue de la Galerie des Tableaux. Les Écoles d'Italie et d'Espagne_, St. Petersburg, 1891: 134), a Livornese painter named Gazzarini offered a somewhat different account of the pre-Galitzin ownership of the picture, which cannot today be substantiated. See also R.P. Gray, "The Golitsyn and Kushelev-Bezborodko Collections and their Role in the Evolution of Public Art Collections in Russia," _Oxford Slavonic Papers_ n.s. 31 (1998): 54-57 [51-67]. [3] Mellon purchase date and date deeded to Mellon Trust are according to Mellon collection files in NGA curatorial records and David Finley's notebook (donated to the National Gallery of Art in 1977, now in the Gallery Archives).
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