akg-images/Rabatti - Domingie
21-12A DONATELLO, Penitent
Mary Magdalene, ca. 1455.
Painted and gilded wood, 6’ 2”
high. Museo dell’Opera del Duomo,
Florence.
In this late work, Donatello
depicted the once-beautiful
Mary Magdalene as an
emaciated hermit clothed in
her own hair. Only the slight
contrapposto connects the
statue with the artist’s
idealized David (FIG. 21-12).
Although some scholars
date Donatello's moving
portrayal of the Penitent Mary
Magdalene as early as the
1430s, most consider it a late
work datable around 1455.
Certainly, it represents a
sharp break from the classical
beauty and sensuousness of
his David (FIG. 21-12) and
features heightened emotionalism and greater realism.
According to the Golden Legend by Jacobus de Voragine (ca. 1229–
1298), Mary Magdalene, the beautiful prostitute who washed Christ’s
feet and dried them with her hair, took refuge in the wilderness after
the crucifixion and spent the last 30 years of her life as an ascetic
hermit. That is the Mary Magdalene Donatello depicted in this overlife-size gilded wood statue that once stood in Florence’s Baptistery of
San Giovanni (FIG. 12-27), although that may not have been its
original location. As a sign of her penance, Mary has let her hair grow
long. In fact, old and emaciated, she is clothed only in her hair, which
is unkempt and unwashed. Only the slight contrapposto pose connects
this statue with the classically ideal nudity of Donatello’s David. Mary
has sunken eyes and cheeks and a somber expression as she brings
her hands together in prayer and looks inward, seeking salvation. Her
open lips reveal broken teeth. Only her long, elegant fingers suggest
the beauty of her youth.