Penitent Magdalene

Around 1580 religious painting in Venice came under new pressure. The Council of Trent had pushed penitence, the Eucharist and the deaths of saints to the top of the list of proper subjects, and the Holy Office began watching how sacred stories were staged. Veronese, known until then for crowded and sumptuous compositions, answered by stripping things out. Here, in 1583, the whole setting is a crucifix, a skull, a book and a few branches. The palette darkens, the brushwork loosens. The Magdalene is caught at the moment of revelation, lips trembling, eyes turned upward. Three decades later the Vicenza writer Giovanni Bonifacio set that gesture down as a rule: eyes go to heaven when one prays or gives thanks. The tears on her cheeks are contrition, the first stage of the sacrament of Penance.