Penitent Mary Magdalena

El Greco painted the penitent Magdalene again and again, and in the Spain of the 1590s it is easy to see why. The Catholic Church, pushing back against the Protestant Reformation, wanted images of exactly this kind, a sinner turned to repentance, proof that faith could reclaim anyone. He shows Mary Magdalene in a rocky wilderness, one hand on her breast, the other resting on a skull set atop a closed book, the old reminder that life is short. This is one of several closely related versions of the subject, and scholars have long debated how many left El Greco's own hand and how many his Toledo workshop. The upturned face and stretched, flame-like forms are unmistakably his.