The Penitent Magdalene - Guido Reni
- The Penitent Magdalene
- Guido Reni (Italian, 1575-1642)
- Baroque, Religious
- Painted c.1635
- Oil on Canvas
- 90.8 x 74.3 cm
- The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, United States
The claims that Mary Magdalene was a prostitute leading a promiscuous way of life before meeting Jesus and repenting of her sinful ways, are completely unfounded, and not supported by the canonical gospels. Nevertheless, the idea of a wayward woman offered redemption was a powerful image, and the revival of the cult of Mary Magdalene during the late 16th-17th centuries was accompanied with numerous depictions in a variety of styles, of which, Guido Reni's is a personal favourite.
The composition is simple, striking, and powerful. She lifts her soft face toward the heavens and is illuminated by a divine shaft of light, her hair flowing with power over her right shoulder. She clutches a hand to her breast in a show of humility, as her robes drape and swirl.
Depicting the cross above the skull could be a symbolic representation of the triumph of the divine over death; placing the erect cross between her fingers could be a nod to her supposed lascivious former life which she is now turning away from, fixing her gaze toward god in the opposite direction.
Reni's depiction is a masterpiece, and a subtle show of the power of both Christianity, and the Baroque.