3-002-523 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

The Penitent Magdalene, c1730. The penitence of Mary Magdalene, presented in Christian teaching as a prostitute who turned to Christ, was popular in the 16th to 18th centuries as a morally uplifting Christian subject intended for the residential sphere. However, besides the positive example she offered of someone who rejected a life of sin and to whom little cherubs descend to award a martyr’s crown, she could also be depicted in a calculatedly erotic fashion: a beautiful young woman, breast exposed to accentuate her vulnerability as well as sexuality, kneeling in a dark wilderness setting. So the male viewer could enjoy her charms and feel pious, both at the same time!