Mary Magdalene in Early Modern Visual and Material Culture

Abstract

The fragmented narrative that describes the figure and life of Mary Magdalene, stitched together from interpretations of New Testament figures, homilies, and apocrypha, was given a coherent visual identity in the visual and material culture of the Early Modern period, c.1400–1700. Linked to a catalogue of iconography that includes her hair, ointment jar, sumptuous garments, the landscape of her penitential retreat, books, and musical instruments, the saint was fitted to a reliable set of themes that reference these critical moments from her life: witness at the tomb, reveling in worldly luxuries, as a tearful penitent, and as a wilderness outcast. Early Modern depictions of Mary Magdalene are remarkable for their diversity and consistency, making her one of the most creatively and frequently visualized holy figures outside of the Virgin and Christ from the end of the Middle Ages through the Enlightenment.