The Penitent Magdalene

Mary Magdalene is arguably the most spectacularly misrepresented woman in history. Born most likely in Magdala, a small fishing village on the Sea of Galilee, she is described in the Bible as being a follower and disciple of Christ, who, having suffered from a form of acute physiological or psychological trauma, was cured as a result of his intercession. She thereafter devoted herself to his cause and became a key witness to the events of his ministry and Passion. Although the precise details of her role will probably never be known, the fact that she is mentioned by name in the Bible on no fewer than twelve occasions suggests that she was an important and highly respected figure—possibly even more so than the majority of the Apostles.

Yet in the popular tradition, Mary became subject to a spectacular metamorphosis, and as a result of a conflation with the unnamed sinner who washed Christ’s feet with her tears before drying them with her hair (Luke 7:36–50), she became characterized either as a sexually promiscuous woman or as a penitent prostitute. As the Patristic era gave way to the Middle Ages and eventually the Renaissance, Mary became associated with a gamut of additional sins, especially vanity, pride, and covetousness. The most famous medieval account of her fortunes, advanced by Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend (c. 1264), continues the process of conflation, describing how—like the former harlot, St Mary of Egypt—she subjected herself to a protracted period of penance, a form of self-inflicted suffering through which she was able to atone for her sins and purify her soul. She stands thus both as a manifestation of sexual guilt and of the cleansing potential of pain.

The two depictions of Mary offer radically differing interpretations of her legacy and status. In the earliest, produced by Juan Bautista Maíno, Mary is presented as an erotically desirable figure whose long free-flowing hair and exposed breasts serve as symbols of her sexual allure while the book in her hand and her bare feet hint at the penance that she is about to undertake. A point of particular interest concerns the impact of the painting on the audiences for whom it was intended and whether it would have inspired feelings of pious identification or sexual ardour.

The second painting, produced by Mateo Cerezo, depicts Mary in a more visibly penitent yet curiously androgynous light. As she directs her gaze downwards towards a representation of the crucified Christ (a relationship implied in Maíno’s painting by the pot of myrrh by her side), she extends her finger outwards towards the skull in her hands, alerting the attentions of the observer to maxims such as Romans 6:23, which affirms that ‘the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ’.

The common denominator in each instance is the process of ascetic (or self-inflicted) suffering that will soon transform an attractive young lady into a monstrously haggard and yet venerable old woman.