Die büßende Maria Magdalena

El Greco painted this around 1576, right at the moment his life was turning. He had trained in Crete and worked in Venice and Rome, and about now he was leaving Italy for Spain, settling in Toledo, where he would spend the rest of his career. Mary Magdalene is shown as the penitent, eyes lifted, a skull beside her as a reminder of death and a jar of ointment marking who she is. The elongated figure and the strange, silvery light are already unmistakably his. The subject was one he returned to again and again. The penitent Magdalene was among his most popular compositions, repainted and sold many times over the years, and this is one of that family. It came to Budapest through the Hungarian collector Marcell Nemes, who gave it to the museum.