Donatello’s Unusual Depiction of Mary Magdalene

Catholic art tends to depict Mary Magdalene’s beauty, emphasizing her as the embodiment of a conversion from worldly pleasures and the pomp of life (drawing from her debated attribution as the woman caught in adultery). The Scriptures do testify (regardless of this attribution) that she had a dramatic conversion: “And the twelve were with him, and also some women who had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities: Mary, called Magdalene, from whom seven demons had gone out” (Luke 8:1-2). Luke states she was a disciple traveling with Jesus, and we, of course, know her as the great witness of love at the foot of the Cross and the first one to proclaim the Resurrection.

One sculpture, executed with classical precision by Antonio Canova, captures the more typical imaginative rendering of the repentant Magdalene.

Many artists have depicted her not only as an embodiment of natural beauty but also with her body exposed, as we see in this sculpture. Rather than an image of her sinful past, this exposure points more to the stripping down of her attachments and a newly found purity. She is returning to innocence and no longer fears the entrapment of bodily pleasures. The skull obviously points to penance as a preparation for death, but links her penance to Golgotha, the place of the skull.

A much earlier sculpture (c.1450), by the Renaissance pioneer, Donatello, turns the traditional narrative upside down. His wood carving (with some trace of original paint), depicts her no longer as a youthful embodiment of beauty. Rather, we see the penitent at a later stage in life and her penance at its final and complete stage (possibly as a hermitess in southern France at Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume).

We see the fruit of many years of penitence, which have wearied her face, leaving large sockets around her eyes, lost teeth, and bones clearly visible. Yet, despite this dwindling, we still see strength through her strong posture and delicate composure of her hands. Her return to innocence may be complete without any clothing remaining, simply with her hair as covering. Has she recovered something lost in the Fall?

It is thought that Donatello produced the sculpture for the baptistery of the Duomo in Florence. Magdalene, the first witness to the Resurrection, would then also become the model for the new disciple of Jesus. She models how to take on the Cross in the midst of the world, become another Christ, offering one’s body in the fullest, in order to anticipate the Resurrection. Donatello’s depiction of Mary Magdalene may startle, but it should also arouse us out of our complacency, to take up our own work of penance and prayer. It may be easy to look at Mary as an extreme–exorcised of demons and possibly a prostitute–but she represents us all: our need for conversion, grace, and to take up our Cross daily for the rest of our lives.