The Making of a Magdalene: Caravaggio's Reconfiguration of Mary Magdalene's Image in Counter-Reformation Painting

Abstract

Rather than reading Caravaggio's body of work through a biographical lens, I will approach it through a close analysis of the visual material. Specifically, I focus on his Penitent Magdalene, Conversion of Mary Magdalene, Entombment of Christ, and the Death of the Virgin. Before now, these works have not been studied in relation to one another. My study centers on these painting, images in which Mary Magdalene is the primary subject or a key figure in the scene, investigating how Caravaggio conceives of the Magdalene as a complex religious figure worthy of a variety of innovative treatments in familiar subjects.