Repentant Mary Magdalene - Titian

Painting Detail

Repentant Mary Magdalene
Artist: Titian
Medium: Painting, Oil on canvas, 119x97 cm
Date: 1560s
Genre: Christianity, Religious
Source: Barbarigo collection, Venice, 1850

The Penitent Magdalene is a 1565 oil painting by Titian of saint Mary Magdalene, now in the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg. Unlike his 1533 version of the same painting, Titian has covered Mary's nudity and introduced a vase, an open book and a skull as a memento mori. Its colouring is more mature than the earlier work, using colours harmonising with character. In the background the sky is bathed in the rays of the setting sun, with a dark rock contrasting with the brightly lit figure of Mary.

Titian turned to the subject of the repentant Mary Magdalene on several occasions, but this version he kept for himself in his studio at his home, and it was only after the artist's death that it became the property of Cristoforo Barbarigo, to whom it was sold by Titian's son amongst other paintings. It was from the Barbarigo collection that the Repentant Magdalene entered the Hermitage.