Penitent Magdalene (Mary Magdalene)

Artist	Caravaggio
Year	c. 1597
Type	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	122.5 cm × 98.5 cm (48.2 in × 38.8 in)
Location	Doria Pamphilj Gallery, Rome

Penitent Magdalene, also known as Mary Magdalene, is a painting by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio, circa 1597. It is housed in the Doria Pamphilj Gallery of Rome.

This picture and The Rest on the Flight into Egypt must have been painted around the same time, for the same girl sat for the Magdalene and the Madonna. (The model has been identified as a courtesan named Anna Bianchini). On this occasion, however, there are none of the usual signs of a religious scene such as a halo. A young girl, seen from above, is seated on a low stool in one of Caravaggio's favourite cave-like settings, with a triangle of light high up on the wall behind her. Discarded jewellery - a string of pearls, clasps, a jar (perhaps holding precious ointment) - lies on the floor. The girl's hair is loose, as if it has just been washed. Her costume, consisting of a white-sleeved blouse, a yellow tunic and a flowery skirt, is rich. Bellori, who gives a careful description of this picture, which he came across in the collection of Prince Pamphilj, regards its title as an excuse; for him it is just a naturalistic portrayal of a pretty girl. The repentant Mary Magdalene, like the repentant Peter, was a favourite subject of Counter-Reformation art and poetry, which valued the visible expression of the state of contrition 'the gift of tears'. Caravaggio's heroine is sobbing silently to herself and a single tear falls down her cheek. She is, as it were, poised between her past life of luxury and the simple life she will embrace as one of Christ's most faithful followers. It is a sign of the painter's skill that he makes this inner conflict moving at the same time as he makes its representation delectable.

Although nothing painted in the 16th century is as emotive as the statue in wood of the haggard saint carved by Donatello (c. 1456-1460), by the time Titian's bare-breasted Magdalene of the 1530s (Palazzo Pitti, Florence) had become the more modest and affecting Magdalene of the 1560s, there had been a move in religious sensibility towards the humble and pathetic, a change which thirty years later Caravaggio could take for granted.

v • d • e Caravaggio List of works 1593–1594 Boy Peeling Fruit (c. 1592) · Young Sick Bacchus (c. 1593) · Boy with a Basket of Fruit · The Fortune Teller (Buona ventura) (c. 1594) · Cardsharps (I bari) (c. 1594) 1595–1599 the Del Monte paintings The Musicians (c. 1595) · Saint Francis of Assisi in Ecstasy (c. 1595) · Saint Francis in Meditation (c. 1595) · Boy Bitten by a Lizard (c. 1596) · Apollo the Lute Player (c. 1596) · The Lute Player (c. 1596) · Bacchus (c. 1596) · Penitent Magdalene (c. 1597) · Rest on the Flight into Egypt (c. 1597) · Medusa (c. 1597) · Portrait of a Courtesan (Fillide Melandroni) (c. 1597) · Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto (c. 1597) · The Fortune Teller (c. 1597–98) · Saint Catherine of Alexandria (c. 1598) · The Sacrifice of Isaac (Princeton version) (c. 1598) · John the Baptist (c. 1598) · Martha and Mary Magdalene (c. 1598) · Portrait of Maffeo Barberini (1598) · Basket of Fruit (c. 1599) · Judith Beheading Holofernes (c. 1599) · David and Goliath (c. 1599) · Narcissus (c. 1599) · Boy Bitten by a Lizard (c. 1600) 1600–1606 Most famous painter in Rome The Calling of Saint Matthew (1599–1600) · The Martyrdom of Saint Matthew (1599–1600) · The Conversion of Saint Paul (1600) · The Crucifixion of Saint Peter (1601) · The Conversion of Saint Paul on the Road to Damascus (1601) · Supper at Emmaus (London) (1601) · The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew · Amor Victorious (1602) · Saint Matthew and the Angel (1602) · The Inspiration of Saint Matthew (1602) · John the Baptist (Capitoline) (1602) · John the Baptist (Pamphilij) (c. 1602) · The Incredulity of Saint Thomas (c. 1602) · The Taking of Christ (1602) · Saint Francis in Meditation (Cappuccini) (c. 1603) · The Entombment of Christ (c. 1603) · The Sacrifice of Isaac (1603) · Madonna of Loreto (Madonna dei Pellegrini, Pilgrims' Madonna) (c. 1604) · John the Baptist (Kansas City) (1604) · John the Baptist (Palazzo Corsini) (1604) · The Crowning with Thorns (Prato) (1604) · The Death of the Virgin (1604) · Christ on the Mount of Olives (1605) · Ecce Homo (c. 1605) · Saint Jerome in Meditation (c. 1605) · Saint Jerome Writing (Borghese) (c. 1605) · Portrait of Pope Paul V (1605) · Still Life with Fruit on a Stone Ledge (1605) · Madonna and Child with St. Anne (Madonna de Palafrenieri, Grooms' Madonna) (1606) 1606–1608 Naples and Malta Mary Magdalen in Ecstasy (1606) · Saint Francis in Prayer (Cremona) (1606) · Supper at Emmaus (Milan) (1606) · The Seven Works of Mercy (1606) · The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew (1607) · David with the Head of Goliath (Vienna) (1607) · Madonna of the Rosary (1607) · The Crowning with Thorns (Vienna) (1607) · The Flagellation of Christ (c. 1607) · Christ at the Column (c. 1607) · Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (London) (c. 1607) · Saint Jerome Writing (Valletta) (1607) · Portrait of Alof de Wignacourt and his Page (1607–1608) · Portrait of Fra Antionio Martelli (1608) · The Beheading of Saint John the Baptist (1608) · Sleeping Cupid (1608) · John the Baptist (John the Baptist at the Fountain) (1608) 1608–1610 Sicily and Naples The Annunciation (1608) · Burial of St. Lucy (1608) · The Raising of Lazarus (1609) · Adoration of the Shepherds (1609) · Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence (1609) · Salome with the Head of John the Baptist (Madrid) (1609) · Denial of Saint Peter (1610) · John the Baptist (Borghese) (1610) · The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula (1610) · David with the Head of Goliath (1610) Works attributed to Caravaggio Still Life with Flowers and Fruit · John the Baptist (Reclining) (1610) · The Tooth Puller (1607–1609) · John the Baptist (Basel) · Boy Peeling a Fruit (c. 1593) · Holy Family with St. John the Baptist · Cardsharps (pre-1594)