Saint Mary Magdalene in Penitence

This is one of the earliest works by the Flemish painter David Teniers the Younger (1610-90), painted when he was only twenty-four years old. The youthful artist depicts Mary Magdalene as a young woman at the beginning of her hermitage in the wilderness. She sits alone in a rocky landscape holding a cross in one hand, a reminder of her presence at Christ’s crucifixion and burial according to the Gospels of the Bible. She rests her head in her other hand. Her spiked yellow halo is reminiscent of Christ’s crown of thorns, which he was made to wear at his crucifixion, while the human skull resting next to her serves as a further reminder of mortality. In the background, Christian burial sites are marked with crosses beyond which lies a city’s ramparts and a foot bridge – all signalling that Mary Magdalene is now on the outskirts of ordinary life. By the waterside, both the wading bird and the rabbit turn away from her, emphasising her solitude. The vegetables at her feet indicate the extreme frugality of her life in penitence and the pile of books – the scriptures of her Christian faith – are her only companion. She is characterised as a model of contemplation as she resolutely turns her gaze away from the material world.

Mary Magdalene is depicted here in contemporary Flemish seventeenth-century dress, perhaps suggesting that this painting was made for private devotion. Mary Magdalene was considered a worthy role model and patron saint for aristocratic women, and became a popular guise for portraits of aristocratic Flemish women at this time. Teniers the Younger was the eldest son of the Flemish painter David Teniers the Elder (1582-1649) and he has signed and dated this work on its lower edge beneath the vegetables: 'D. Tenier Iv 1634'.