Penitent Mary Magdalena

This Penitent Mary Magdalene is an oil on canvas showing the saint in a posture of quiet contrition, her gaze turned upward as a sign of the search for salvation. El Greco treated this subject in several versions, and specialists distinguish up to five different models within his output. According to Harold Wethey's catalogue, this painting is considered an autograph copy, that is, made by the artist himself, of the version in Budapest, regarded as the prototype of one particular iconographic type. Wethey judges it a minor, though interesting, version within that group.

One of the most discussed features is the sensuality that the painter gives the figure. The saint's right shoulder and breast introduce an ambiguity: her upturned gaze suggests repentance and a wish for spiritual elevation, yet her body seems to hold on to earthly desires. Wethey notes that this third version of the subject, together with the first two versions of The Expulsion of the Money-Changers, contains the only examples of female eroticism in the whole of El Greco's known output, which gives the work a distinctive place in his production.

Attribution, however, is not settled. Although Wethey counts it among the authentic works, the painting was left out of the 2014 exhibition devoted to El Greco in Catalan museums, and the management of the Montserrat Museum has voiced doubts about its authenticity. The proposed dates also vary between sources, ranging from the late 1570s to the early 1580s.

Its path to Montserrat has a curious episode. It belonged to Alejandro Gallart Folch, who bought it at a flea market in Madrid to decorate his Barcelona residence, the Palau de les Heures. He later exchanged it for a portrait of Lola Ruiz Picasso by Pablo Picasso, and the painting eventually entered the collection of Josep Sala i Ardiz, whose bequest to the museum included this canvas.

Painter

El Greco

Date

1590

Museum

Museum of Montserrat, Monistrol de Montserrat

Genre

religious art

Depicts

Mary Magdalene

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