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Wikimedia Commons · Public domain · Hover to magnify, click for fullscreen
Original fileThe saint is shown in profile, looking upward with an expression of intense devotion. Her body is completely covered by thick, wavy tresses of hair which serve as her only garment, reflecting her years of asceticism in the wilderness. Small, dark pinpricks along the outlines of the figure indicate this sheet was used as a cartoon to transfer the design onto another surface through pouncing.
As a primary model of the contemplative life, the penitent Magdalene resonated with Renaissance Neoplatonists who viewed her withdrawal from the physical world as a metaphor for the soul's ascent toward divine beauty and truth. The image highlights the transition from worldly vanity to spiritual interiority.
305.
Jacobus de Voragine
The Golden Legend (Legenda Aurea) contains the hagiographic account of Mary Magdalene's thirty-year retreat in a cave, where she was sustained by celestial music and covered only by her miraculously growing hair.
Marsilio Ficino
Ficino’s Neoplatonic philosophy often emphasized the 'contemplative life' (vita contemplativa) of which the Magdalene was a traditional Christian archetype.
Object
Oil on panel
religious
Digital Source
Wikimedia Commons · Public domain
http://www.smb-digital.de/
1233 × 3465 px
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 2, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.