Mary Magdalene Penitent
by RIBERA, Jusepe de, Oil on canvas, 196 x 148 cm
The beautiful Mary Magdalene Penitent is a replica of the work kept in the Prado Museum that forms part of a series of four compositions in which youth and old age in man and woman are contrasted; Magdalene is compared with Saint John the Baptist adolescent and Saint Mary of Egypt is compared to Saint Bartholomew.
The pictorial space in this solemn and monumental composition is arranged in the form of a triangle. The thick squared ashlars on which the saint is leaning pay tribute to the most classical of painters from Bologna, Annibale Carracci, who used them in his Pietà, a work that was made widely accessible through prints.