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The Penitent Mary Magdalene in Old Master Painting

About this collection

The penitent Mary Magdalene is one of the great subjects of Old Master painting, the saint shown alone with her skull, her book and her jar of ointment, turned from a worldly life to repentance.

She is always recognisable. Painters of the 17th and 18th centuries gave her long loosened hair, a bare shoulder and a face lifted in thought or lowered in grief, and set her attributes beside her so that anyone could name her at a glance. To see how painters told her story, read our guide to Mary Magdalene in Old Master painting.

SoldAntique 17th century Flemish oil on copper, the penitent Mary Magdalene, in ripple moulded frame

Flemish School, 17th century

Penitent Magdalene, 1600sSold
Antique penitent Magdalene in a cave with an open book and a skull, oil in a moulded gilt frame

Dutch School, early 18th century

Penitent Magdalene, 1700s
$3,800
Large antique 17th century Italian penitent Magdalene with a skull, oil on canvas in gilded frame

Italian School, 17th century

Penitent Mary Magdalene, 1600s
$12,000

Guides · before you buy

Reading Attribution on an Antique PaintingSeven terms between a painter's own hand and a copy made after him, and what each one actually claims about the picture.Read the guideHow to Read Signatures and Inscriptions on Antique PaintingsA signature is a clue, not a verdict.Read the guide

GalerieClub Fine Art

1,100+

paintings sold since 2017

Poppy Fields, late 1800sSold Poppy Fields, late 1800s Hagar and Ishmael, 1700sSold Hagar and Ishmael, 1700s Penitent Magdalene, 1600sSold Penitent Magdalene, 1600s

Our promise

  • Every painting photographed front and back
  • The frame you see is the frame that ships
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New paintings, by email

A note when new paintings come in. Nothing else.

Elsewhere in the gallery

Penitent Mary Magdalene paintings for sale at GalerieClub

No saint was painted in more private rooms. After the Council of Trent, the Church held up the repentant sinner as a model, and collectors across Catholic Europe wanted a penitent Mary Magdalene oil painting for their own walls. The repentant Magdalene became a subject in which devotion and beauty met, and the works in this collection belong to that long demand.

  • Every attribute tells part of her story. The jar of ointment recalls the perfume she poured on Christ's feet, the book stands for her life of prayer, and the skull reminds the viewer that earthly beauty ends. A painting of the Magdalene with the book and the skull is therefore also a vanitas, a meditation on time, and a candle or an hourglass sometimes joins the scene.

  • The Baroque gave her drama. A 17th century Mary Magdalene painting often sets her in deep shadow with a single light on her face, her tears and her hair, while the 18th century softened the scene, with lighter colour and a gentler, more intimate grief. Both kept the same attributes, unchanged for two centuries.

  • The subject was painted at every scale. Large canvases hung in chapels and halls, while smaller devotional pictures were painted on oak panel in the Low Countries or on copper, whose smooth surface holds fine detail and bright colour, for a patron's private room. The support often tells where and for whom a Magdalene was made.