Canova’s lost ‘Maddalena Giacente’ seen fetching up to $10M at auction

Described by public sale home Christie’s because the Italian neoclassical sculptor’s “misplaced masterpiece,” “Maddalena Giacente” (Recumbent Magdalene) was commissioned by the Earl of Liverpool, then British prime minister, and took three years to carve.

Depicting Mary Magdalene in a state of spiritual ecstasy, the sculpture was accomplished simply earlier than Canova’s dying in 1822.

“This is likely one of the final works that Canova truly executed…it is only recently come to gentle after having been in collections within the twentieth century, unrecognized as a big marble by Canova,” Donald Johnston, Christie’s Worldwide Head of Sculpture, informed Reuters at a media preview on Thursday.

“It was one of many highlights of the Artwork Treasures exhibition in Manchester in 1857…it was offered with the contents of a home to a gentleman…there was a hearth on the home. He had an public sale of the contents, and by the point that public sale occurred in 1938, the identification was misplaced and he or she was simply known as a classical determine.”

The sculpture, on present at Christie’s London this weekend, will go on tour to New York and Hong Kong. It is going to be supplied on the market at a July 7 public sale, with a worth estimate of £5 million to £8 million ($6.6 million to $10.6 million).

“For me facially, it is completely typical of Canova however there are different indicators as effectively,” Johnston mentioned.

“The best way the toes are achieved, the way in which the arms are achieved, the way in which that the fingers have this type of light curve…it’s totally typical of Canova. Typically the standard of the piece…it sings out. So that you had been at all times going to be searching for a grasp because the creator of this marble.”

Prime picture caption: “Recumbent Magdalene” on present at Christie’s London on March 17, 2022.