# The iconography of Mary Magdalene

Titian, Magdalene Penitent, 1533, oil on canvas,
84x69cm, Florence, Pitti Palace
Source : Uffizi Gallery, via Wikicommons
Public domain

Mary Magdalene, or Mary of Magdala, is a biblical character who appears in the Gospels as a disciple of Jesus Christ. Considered a repentant sinner who follows Christ's teachings, she is above all the first human being to witness the miracle of the Resurrection.

She has been a common subject of Christian art down the centuries, and a favorite of religious painters from Titian to Caravaggio to Delacroix, in which she personifies repentance. In these works, she generally appears nude, with long hair and often in a penitent posture. She possesses numerous attributes, the most common of which is the nard vase with which she anoints Christ's feet at Simon's house. Her other attributes include the courtesan's mirror, the skull and the crown of thorns.

In the context of the work's production in the early 20th century, Georges Lacombe, a staunch anticlerical, chose a character he saw as an alternative to the institutional Church founded by the apostle Peter, and as a representative of the Gnostic movement, a movement of knowledge and opposition to the clergy.