Art Institute of Chicago

Saint Mary Magdalene, Model of Penitence

Unknown Artist (French, 18th century)

Date

1774/89

Medium

Woodcut in black, hand-colored with brush, stencil and watercolor, on four sheets of cream laid paper (discolored to buff), joined

Culture

France

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

This extraordinary four-sheet popular woodcut makes the saint very much France’s own. Pilgrims in the background on their way to Saint James of Compostela visit the cave where Mary Magdalene is said to have lived in the Saint-Baume mountains near Marseille, having traveled miraculously from the Holy Land. This print was likely sold at Sainte-Baume or another French pilgrimage site. Its borders depict relics of the Magdalene (head, arm, and hair) and a vial of Christ’s blood, all of which still survive despite the looting of their protective golden reliquaries during the French Revolution.

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