"christ And Mary Magdalene At The Banquet Of Simon The Pharisee," Signed By Jacopo Borbone Da Novellara.

“Christ and Mary Magdalene at the Banquet of the Pharisee Simon,” signed by Jacopo Borbone, a painter originally from Novellara, where he took his first steps as an artist in the prestigious workshop of the Mannerist master Lelio Orsi (1511–1587).
This painting is one of the rare records of the artist’s time in Umbria between 1611 and 1612, and likely the only surviving secular work intended for private devotion. The artist’s time in Umbria is, in fact, documented by the frescoes he painted in the Chapel of the Pietà at the Cathedral of San Giovenale in Narni, by an altarpiece depicting Christ Giving His Blessing, formerly in San Cassio, now in the Municipal Art Gallery, and by a *Madonna of the Rosary and Two Saints*, also recorded in the Municipal Art Gallery of Narni until 1908, but now lost. In Orvieto, Borbone painted the Vision of Saint Philip Benizi in Santa Maria dei Servi, while an inventory note drawn up in 1651 by the Meniconi family of Perugia documents a Holy Family with Saint Anne, which is also lost today or whose location is unknown.
Returning to the work presented here, which bears the painter’s customary signature “I[ac] Borbonius,” it stands as an important testament to the artist’s painterly style during his period of activity in central Italy, displaying an approach still rooted in the tradition of Girolamo Muziano and other 17th-century Venetian painters, but at the same time highlights his personal stylistic approach to Caravaggesque naturalism, which was in vogue in Rome during those years, as seen in the beautiful still life—unusual in his works (comparable to the one depicted in *The Last Supper* in the church of Santo Stefano in Novellara)— which, through its humble intent and muted, almost monochromatic color palette, expresses an attempt to symbolically emphasize the importance of the blood of Christ as a vehicle of redemption and the covenant between God and man, projected into the chalice of wine and its marvelous reflections on the table.

The painting retains its original Umbrian frame from the same period, which is in excellent condition.

The canvas measures 107 cm x 130 cm.