The Penitent Magdalene by José de Ribera

The Penitent Magdalene by José de Ribera

Looking up

Mary Magdalene sits in a dark cave, her hands clasped at her breast and her eyes lifted toward a light breaking above. Her long red-gold hair falls over her shoulders; beside her are the skull and the jar of ointment that identify her. Ribera shows repentance as a kind of radiance — the face lifted out of darkness into light.

Ribera’s beauty

Ribera is known above all for harsh, fierce images — flayed saints, ragged philosophers, brutal realism. But in his later years, in pictures like this, he painted beauty and tenderness with the same force. The Magdalene’s face, with its soft flesh and clear eyes, may have been modelled on his daughter.

The Spanish royal collection

Like much of Ribera’s work, it was sent from Naples to Spain and entered the royal collection, which is how it came to the Prado.

Where it hangs

The canvas is in the Museo del Prado in Madrid and measures 182 by 149 centimetres.

About this print

Made from a 3,051-pixel photograph of the original, enough to print sharply at up to about 20 inches on its longest side.

Sources: Museo del Prado, Madrid · Wikidata Q6004260 · Wikimedia Commons