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Source Description
Mary Magdalene is presented in Christian teaching as a beautiful prostitute who turned to Christ and rejected her former life of sin. From the 1500s through the 1800s, images of a penitent (regretful and self-chastising) Magdalene were very popular as a morally uplifting subject of paintings intended for Christian homes. Painters sometimes depict her as modestly dressed and in sober meditation (as can be seen nearby in the 17th-Century Gallery) or, as here, in an emotion-filled moment of physical privation in a wilderness. Here the result is calculatedly erotic, surely intended both to excite the male purchaser and to inspire devotion and penance. With her breast exposed to accentuate her vulnerability as well as sexuality, she kneels in a dark isolated setting that exudes danger. For more information on this painting, please see Federico Zeri's 1976 catalogue no. 441, p. 552.
Scholar Source Context
Document identity
localId
19320
label
The Penitent Magdalene
core
obj
dtoType
drawing
citationUrl
pageCount
1
Source metadata
id
19320
sourceUrl
contentType
drawing
stage
normalized
title
The Penitent Magdalene
description
Mary Magdalene is presented in Christian teaching as a beautiful prostitute who turned to Christ and rejected her former life of sin. From the 1500s through the 1800s, images of a penitent (regretful and self-chastising) Magdalene were very popular as a morally uplifting subject of paintings intended for Christian homes. Painters sometimes depict her as modestly dressed and in sober meditation (as can be seen nearby in the 17th-Century Gallery) or, as here, in an emotion-filled moment of physical privation in a wilderness. Here the result is calculatedly erotic, surely intended both to excite the male purchaser and to inspire devotion and penance. With her breast exposed to accentuate her vulnerability as well as sexuality, she kneels in a dark isolated setting that exudes danger. For more information on this painting, please see Federico Zeri's 1976 catalogue no. 441, p. 552.
provenance
Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown] [1897 catalogue: no. 276, as Rondoni]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
date
ca. 1730 (Baroque)
citationUrl
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Painting & Drawing
oil paintings (visual works)
imageCount
1
pageCount
1
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
108.6
height
90.8
depth
7.6
dimensionsRaw
Framed H: 42 3/4 × W: 35 3/4 × D: 3 in. (108.59 × 90.81 × 7.62 cm); Painted surface H: 32 1/16 x W: 24 15/16 in. (81.4 x 63.4 cm)
Source extras
inscriptions
[Inscription] Name on stretcher: Francesco Maria Rondani
med
oil on canvas
creator_ids
33562
collection_ids
BAR
exhibition_ids
none
Single page context
seq
1
pageIndex
0
type
photo
mediaId
ce0d8417b4c7db76