The Penitent Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene lies on the ground in her cave, her face turned up toward the light. Her dress is plain, a sign that she has given up the finery of her old life, and beside her lie a skull and an open book, for death and for prayer.

Gentileschi painted the subject in Genoa, where he had gone in 1621 with his patron, the nobleman Giovanni Antonio Sauli. A Genoese historian listed a Penitent Magdalene among his first pictures there, and the Vienna canvas is regarded as the principal version of the composition, which exists in several other versions. It has been cut down at the right. Gentileschi signed it at the lower right and called himself Florentine, as his father's family was, although he had been born in Pisa.