Penitent Magdalene

By the late 1620s Artemisia Gentileschi was one of the few women running a busy painting workshop in Italy, and she was about to settle in Naples, then one of the largest cities in Europe and among its hungriest art markets. Devout, Spanish-ruled Naples wanted its saints made human, and few subjects were in greater demand than the penitent Magdalene, in tradition a wealthy sinner who had turned from her old life. Artemisia painted the theme more than once. Here the figure leans away from that former luxury, her fine dress and loosened hair standing for everything she is giving up. The painting hangs today in the Museo Correale in Sorrento, on the coast just south of Naples, the city where Artemisia would spend much of the rest of her life.