The Acquisition of the Barbarigo Gallery Collection

 
Titian (Tiziano Vecellio)
Repentant Mary Magdalene
Italy. 1560s
Oil on canvas

In 1850 the Museum acquired the collection from the Palace of Venetian patrician Cristoforo Barbarigo, in whose palace the artist Titian died in the 16th century. The Barbarigo collection, including a number of pieces by Titian, had been put together in the 16th century and described in detail by Ridolfi, historian of the Renaissance era. When the Museum acquired the Barbarigo paintings it already possessed three canvases by Titian, Danae, Portrait of a Young Woman (Crozat, 1772) and The Flight into Egypt (Bruhl, 1769), but now it gained another five pieces, including his masterpieces The Penitent Mary Magdalene and St Sebastian.