Penitent Magdalene

This was one of the pictures Titian's clients could not get enough of. He and his Venetian workshop turned out at least seven versions of the penitent Magdalene, which, along with the Danae, made it one of his most-repeated subjects. The demand fits the moment. Around 1550 the Catholic church was pushing back hard against the Reformation and prized exactly this kind of image, a great sinner shown in the act of repentance. Titian gives her a skull to contemplate, an open prayer book, and the jar of ointment from the Gospel story, when she anointed Christ's feet and dried them with her hair. This particular version passed to the Farnese family and traveled with their collection to Naples in 1734, where it hangs today.