How to Read Paintings: The Penitent Magdalen by Georges de La Tour
A fascinating image of piety, meditation and spiritual longing
In this painting, by the French artist Georges de La Tour, Mary Magdalene sits in a meditative pose, with a candle and a mirror in front of her, and a human skull in her hands.
The purpose of these objects is to impress upon the viewer that Mary is reflecting on the fleeting emptiness of worldly possessions. The burning candle represents the fragility of life, which may flicker and extinguish at any moment. The skull in her hands reminds her that nothing lives forever. In short, Mary is sat among a form of still-life painting known as a Vanitas — from the Latin meaning “emptiness”.
And yet you can’t help but notice the angle of Mary’s gaze, how it passes over the top of all these objects and away into the shadowy distance. It’s almost as if her thoughts have drifted and she is she is longing for something else.
To notice the direction of Mary’s gaze is also to see the long white flute of her chest and chin, and how her neck becomes a slender arc of light cut across by the curve of her…
