The Many Faces of Mary Magdalene
How art helps and hinders our understanding of the apostle to the apostles.
In my last post, we briefly reviewed the life of Mary Magdalene (Mary M) as portrayed in the Gospel accounts. Jennifer McNutt, in her new book The Mary We Forgot, examines her life, legend, and legacy through the centuries, helping us decipher truth from conjecture. One of the culprits guilty of exacerbating our confusion?
Art.
My trip to study the cathedrals and museums in Italy almost two years ago introduced me to many, many artistic renditions of Mary M. Few of them stuck to the story of her life as seen in the biblical text. Because McNutt handles well the several Mary characters, and how they may have been conflated into one or two people, I will not dive deeply into the theories of why/how Mary M’s legend grew in different directions. But I will show you some of the art that resulted from those erroneous ideas, so when you see them IRL or online you will be able to identify where each piece goes off-script.
Hairy Mary (of Egypt)
“This altarpiece depicting the life of Mary Magdalene is believed to be the earliest painted narrative cycle of her life.”1 Mary is depicted not wearing a brown robe, as one might assume, but covered in her long flowing hair—a visual reference to the penitent nature of Mary of Egypt, a desert ascetic from the sixth century, who after living a life of prostitution, repented and dedicated her life to the Lord. In this image, she holds a scroll that reads in Latin, “Do not despair those of you who are accustomed to sin, and in keeping with my example, return yourselves to God.”
The series of eight images surrounding her depict stories from the Bible and Golden Legend (a 15th-century hagiography collection written to encourage believers through telling lives of the saints). The artist has gathered traditions surrounding Mary M into one mash-up, both illustrating and perpetuating the conflation of several Marys into one person. In the image below, we see Donatello’s depiction of “Hairy Mary,” as she is slyly referred to, in his masterful wooden carving housed in Florence’s Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. Though named “the Magdalene,” the image comes from Mary of Egypt.
Note the ragged “clothing”—it is her hair all grown out that covers her. Her face is sorrowful, her body haggard, her hands posed in prayer. She is sorry for her life of sin. Below I include a 360º video of the statue.
Where did artists get the idea that Mary M was a repentant prostitute? Nothing in Scripture points to her being a prostitute, though some have conflated her with the “sinful woman” (Luke 7:37) who anointed Jesus with oil.
The Sinful Woman
In Gentileschi’s portrait, Mary’s beauty and voluptuousness is highlighted, even as she is supposed to be “recovered” and repentant. Here she experiences the ecstasy of prayer to her Savior. But it’s easy to see a subtext of “look how beautiful and tempting she is… we know what she used to do." The artist emphasized her sensuality, helping cement the legend that Mary M was a reformed sexual sinner.
The Deposition / La Pietà
The Gospels uniformly name Mary M as a witness to Jesus’s crucifixion. She stuck by him, with a few other women, to the bitter end (Matt. 27:55–56; Mark 15:47; Luke 23:49, 55; John 19:25). Caravagio’s gorgeous painting shows Nicodemus and John the apostle lowering the body of Jesus from the cross. They are surrounded by the women who followed him—his mother Mary in blue, Mary M with her head bowed, and the other Mary wife of Cleopas who is raising her hands dramatically.
One of Michaelangelo’s Pietà sculptures depicts his mother holding up his body, with Mary M to the side helping her support his weight. This sculpture is found in Florence.
In Orvieto, a small mountain-top town in central Italy, the duomo holds this pietà by Scalza. Joseph or Nicodemus (we aren’t sure) has brought a ladder to help him take the body off the cross. Mother Mary, arm raised, holds her son with an emotional expression. Down to the right we see Mary M cradling his hand to her cheek and reaching down to hold his toe. One could spend hours contemplating the emotions carved into the marble.
What the pietàs do well is portray Mary M’s devotion to Jesus, a loyalty well attested in the biblical text.
Noli Me Tangere
Also in line with her actual story, Giotto painted Mary M at the scene of Jesus’s resurrection. Here she reaches for him, as we see in John 20:16 when he says her name and she turns to him. “Touch me not,” [“do not cling” (CSB); “do not hold on” (NIV)] Jesus told her. He is not rejecting her touch; rather he desires action. Instead, he says, “Go and tell the brothers…”—he has a mission for her, to proclaim that he lives.
Concluding Thoughts
The images shared here are but a few of the hundreds to be found in art collections across Europe and the Middle East. They are a mixed bag. Mary Magdalene, as McNutt’s book amply demonstrates, is a polarizing figure who has been misunderstood through the ages. Artists reflect ideas of their times, and often we find Mary’s story merged with other characters so much so that her true person is obscured. Each piece can tell a valuable story.
The Visual Museum of Women in Christianity includes these and other images of Mary M. The curators of this free online collection discuss Mary M in several podcast episodes of The Alabaster Jar:
Mary Magdalene: A Model of Devotion and Discipleship
Reclaiming the Apostle to the Apostles: Mary Magdalene
I encourage us all to return to the biblical text to discover the real Mary Magdalene and learn why, above all, she is known as “the apostle to the apostles.”
https://www.visualmuseum.gallery/gallery/repentant-magdalene-and-eight-stories-of-her-life/
I remember reading ages ago about how the Greco-Roman world viewed women's long hair with suspicion, and tried to control women's hair in multiple ways. The "Hairy Mary" depictions must have been a challenge to people who still had that mindset! Thanks for this post!