The Penitent Magdalene

In the decades after the Council of Trent, the Catholic Church pressed penance and confession on the faithful, and Mary Magdalene, the repentant sinner, became one of its favourite examples. In Toledo, El Greco and his workshop answered that demand with several versions of her, and this canvas in the parish church of San Eutropio in Paradas, a small town near Seville, belongs to that series. It repeats the composition of a Magdalene now in Kansas City, while her upturned face follows another version now in Worcester, Massachusetts. Specialists disagree about the hand. Some give it to the workshop or a follower, and recent studies see El Greco himself at least in the face. How it reached Paradas is not documented. When it was restored in 1966 and 1967, about 80 percent of the surface turned out to be later repainting. In December 2025 thieves broke into the church and carried away a copy displayed nearby, while the original stayed behind its grille and alarm.