Penitent Magdalene

This painting belongs to the collection of Musei Capitolini in Rome - Zuzanna especially loves this museum because several years ago she was an intern there. Her adventure with museums and mobile apps began there. This beautiful Tintoretto was one of her favorites. Tintoretto was taught by his father, Jacopo, whom he assisted in painting the Sala del Collegio and the Sala del Senato in the Doge’s Palace, Venice, Italy. In the last decades of the 16th century, Domenico Tintoretto concentrated on religious commissions. His later paintings lack the phosphorescent colors and vitality of his earlier religious panels but effectively communicate Counter-Reformation ideas. Mary Magdalene is generally identified as the penitent harlot described in Luke (7:36 ff) of the New Testament, who wept tears and wetted Christ's feet which she then wiped with her hair, kissed and anointed. One legend describes her as retreating into a grotto at Sainte-Baume in France which is clearly visible behind her.