The Penitent Magdalene

Isabella Contarini · 1638

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

121 × 98 cm

Alone in a cave with a candle, a skull, and her own unbound hair, the Magdalene looks heavenward with tears running freely. Contarini was one of very few women painting in Rome at this period — her Magdalene has an interiority that her male contemporaries rarely achieved with the subject.