Girl with an Amphora
Details
The story
Older catalogues call this picture Mary Magdalene with the jar of ointment. In Christian art the jar was her sign. Tradition made her the woman who poured precious ointment over Christ's feet, and one of the women who came to his tomb on Easter morning with spices to anoint his body. The title the canvas carries today is plainer, a girl with an amphora. It names only what is there, a young woman and a jar, and leaves open whether Reni meant a saint at all.
The museum dates it between 1640 and 1642, and it is a canvas of modest size, 75 by 63 centimetres.
