St. Mary Magdalene
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Authors
Donatello
Date
Type
image
Language
Keyword
St. Mary Magdalene
Alternative Title
Abstract
The original location of Donatello's painted wood sculpture of Mary Magdalene is unknown. It was documented in the Baptistry in Florence in 1500, which may have been the original location. (Today it is housed in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence.) Later, Vasari praises the work, commenting on the emaciated appearance of the figure and Donatello's understanding of human anatomy. Unlike earlier renderings of Mary Magdalene, which depict her in penitence as youthful and beautiful, Donatello has chosen to show her as gaunt and haggard, perhaps reflecting the effects of her earlier sins and the difficulties of her life as a hermit in the south of France after the death of Christ. Donatello carved this sculpture out of a single trunk of white poplar, which is difficult to carve. The statue underwent a significant restoration by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure after it was damaged in the 1966 flood in Florence (after which it was placed in the museum). Restoration revealed extensive polychrome, specifically the blue colour of her eyes and gold of her hair, miraculously long in order to clothe her body when she was naked in penitence in the wilderness. The gold does not cover the hair completely -- rather it is applied in strips that form shimmering highlights. Golden hair was considered beautiful, thus these roughly sculpted but golden locks help embody the paradox of a saint who was thought in the Renaissance to have been a prostitute before her conversion to Christ and subsequent mortification of her body. Recent technical examination and further restoration have revealed that Donatello, who often experimented with materials, used thick stucco (strengthened with unspun hemp fibers) to model the forms of the hair, in addition to carving the wood. The muscular legs and arms, in contrast, have only a thin layer of stucco to serve as a ground for the paint. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International.
Description
Il Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, Florence
Citation
Fece di scoltura di legname e colorì: Scultura del Quattrocento in legno dipinto a Firenze (Florence: Giunti, 2016), cat. II, pp. 264-5 (with previous references); Giovan Battista Fidanza, "Donatellos Maria Magdalena: Technik und Theologie einer Holzfigur," Wiener Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte 62 (2014): 127-44; Cheryl Korte, Polychromed Quattrocento Sculpture in Florence, PhD diss. (New York: Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, 2011), 204-7; Il Museo dell'Opera del Duomo a Firenze: Guide Mandragora (Florence: La Mandragora s.r.l., 2000), 119; Charles Avery, Donatello: Catalogo completo (Florence: Cantini & C, 1991), 130.