DOI Heft:
Nr. 3-4
DOI Artikel:Murawska-Muthesius, Katarzyna; Secomska, Krystyna: Mary Magdalen, the counter reformation and the Caravaggisti: are there any more paintings by Antiveduto Gramatica in Poland?
DOI Seite / Zitierlink:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18945#0115
2. Antiveduto Gramotica,
Martha Rebuking Mary for
her Vanity, Warsaw,
Muzeum Narodowe
it must have been destined for a private patron. The painting entered the
Museum collections in 1945, and concluding from an impressively high
number in the lower right corner, 1191, it might have belonged to an
important private collection in Poland.21 The poor condition of the painting
does not encourage any speedy judgements as to whether it could be regarded
as a badly preserved and overpainted original by Gramatica, or whether it
should be considered a product of his workshop. Nevertheless, the
identification of the Warsaw painting contributes to our knowledge of
Gramatica, as well as to an understanding of the multifaceted Caravaggist
interpretation of the dialogue between pious Martha and voluptuous Mary, the
interpretation adopting the old vanitas imagery to the new way of visualising
a religious conversion.
The painting depicts a dialogue between Martha of Bethany and her sister
Mary, who is known both for her beauty and for her sinful conduct. The
righteous Martha reproves Mary for vanity, and she tries to bring her sister
21 Or, somewhere in Central Europe, i.e. in the area, which, after 1945, was subordinated to the
massive operation of recovering of works of art stolen by the Nazis and of the revindication, i.e.
the appriopriation other works of art as the means of compensation for the war losses. On the
revindication, see W Kowalski, Likwidacja skutków II wojny swiatowej w dziedzinie kultury,
Warszawa 1994 (bibb).
105
Martha Rebuking Mary for
her Vanity, Warsaw,
Muzeum Narodowe
it must have been destined for a private patron. The painting entered the
Museum collections in 1945, and concluding from an impressively high
number in the lower right corner, 1191, it might have belonged to an
important private collection in Poland.21 The poor condition of the painting
does not encourage any speedy judgements as to whether it could be regarded
as a badly preserved and overpainted original by Gramatica, or whether it
should be considered a product of his workshop. Nevertheless, the
identification of the Warsaw painting contributes to our knowledge of
Gramatica, as well as to an understanding of the multifaceted Caravaggist
interpretation of the dialogue between pious Martha and voluptuous Mary, the
interpretation adopting the old vanitas imagery to the new way of visualising
a religious conversion.
The painting depicts a dialogue between Martha of Bethany and her sister
Mary, who is known both for her beauty and for her sinful conduct. The
righteous Martha reproves Mary for vanity, and she tries to bring her sister
21 Or, somewhere in Central Europe, i.e. in the area, which, after 1945, was subordinated to the
massive operation of recovering of works of art stolen by the Nazis and of the revindication, i.e.
the appriopriation other works of art as the means of compensation for the war losses. On the
revindication, see W Kowalski, Likwidacja skutków II wojny swiatowej w dziedzinie kultury,
Warszawa 1994 (bibb).
105