17th century italian school Penitent Magdalene Canvas Height 97.4 cm - Width 79.8 cm The theme of the Penitent Magdalene was very popular in Italy in the first half of the 17th century, particularly among painters influenced by Caravaggio and his dramatic naturalism. Depicted withdrawn from the world, absorbed in meditation or prayer, Mary Magdalene became the exemplary image of conversion, repentance and the interior life, in the spiritual context of the Catholic Counter-Reformation. The artists who followed Caravaggio favored a profoundly human and realistic vision of the saint: gestures are simple, emotions restrained, symbolic objects - skull, book, extinguished candle or perfume bottle - recall the vanity of earthly goods and the hope of salvation. Caravaggesque chiaroscuro intensifies this atmosphere of silence and contemplation, drawing the figure out of the shadows with a concentrated, almost spiritual light. In the work of painters such as Orazio Gentileschi, Artemisia Gentileschi and Bartolomeo Manfredi, the penitent Magdalene oscillates between sensitive realism and devotional ideals, becoming one of the major subjects of Italian Baroque religious painting. The painter of our Madeleine offers an interpretation that evokes versions by Guido Reni, Francesco Furini, Gabriel Blanchard and Nicolas Régnier.