Mary Magdalene In Art

•

•

•

María: Tradicionalmente María Magdalena se representaba como una figura bella, joven. Aquí, Donatello revoluciona el arte representándola como una mujer vieja, arrugada, demacrada. Una visión mezcla de lástima y horror. Donatello: En la María Magdalena vuelva el artista toda su experiencia. No en vano, tiene ya sesenta años y había llegado a Florencia, donde moriría. Es su obracúlmen, seguramente la que más impacta por su iconografía. Mortificaciones: Donatello la representa en el momento de sus mortificaciones en el desierto, por eso la coloca en postura orante y con el vestido

Ubicación: Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (Florencia, Italia)Superficie o materiales: Madera tallada, dorada y policromada. he sculpture was made for the Baptistry of Florence. Its restoration, whichwas necessary after the flood of 1966, has brought out the original polychrome, accentuating the ascetic physicality of the sculpture. Vasari wrote about the statue: "a finely executed and impressive work. She is portrayed as wasted away by her fastings and abstinence, and Donatello's expert knowledge of anatomy is demonstrated by the perfect accuracy of every part of the figure." St. MaryMagdalen by Donatello "The St. Mary Magdalen is life size. It occupies the same kind of space we occupy as we stand in its presence in the Baptistery of the Cathedral of Florence…. Most of us feel a closer personal identity with figures existing in the round, since we do actually share the space in which they exist. And when such are of a size equal to our own, an even closer identification place takesplace. So, in this close association of the actual and the imaged we see Donatello's conception of the prostitute who bathed at Christ's feet, who was naturally of the faith, was present at the Crucifixion and at the emptied tomb, and who exiled herself into the desert." – Donald L. Weismann, The Visual Arts as Human Experience, page 298 "Few can look at this figure without a wrenching reaction tothe physical deterioration cause by age and years of self-denial. Nothing is left for her but an ecstatic vision of the hereafter, and yet that is everything. Despite Donatello's total rejection of the classical ideal form in this figure, the powerful force of the Magdalen's personality makes this a masterpiece of Renaissance imagery." – Marilyn Stokstad, Art History, Volume 2, 3rd Edition, page633 Mary Magdalene. The name brings back memories of Bible stories of the beautiful woman who repented from her sins of prostitution and followed Jesus wholeheartedly. She is generally painted as a beautiful young woman with Jesus but in Donatello's piece, St. Mary Magdalen, Mary is portrayed in a very different manner. She has been said to have "one of the most haunting faces in all of art(Weismann 300)." Missing teeth; shaggy, tangled hair reaching past her knees; vacant eyes. "This is not the voluptuous blonde prostitute of hundreds of other images of this woman; this is Mary Magdalen, the desert ascetic, giving proof of the condemned bodily estate (Weismann 300)." Her face and body hold an image of what once was, her sacrifice is very clear. She has one leg bent, "suggestive of takinga step forward, but also suggestive of that step being impossible to take (Weismann 299)." Her hands "appear unfeeling, numb – as if Mary had intended to bring them together in a position of prayer, but stopped short of contact because there was no way of feeling whether or not they had actually touched (Weismann 299)." Donatello, like all artists, had to start somewhere. He was originally theapprentice of Lorenzo Ghiberti and helped him with

the Baptistery doors. Artists during the Renaissance often used this system, where master artists apprenticed students, much like small art classes today. Donatello in turn taught Bertoldo di Giovanni, who later taught Michelangelo. Donatello went from a mere student to one of the world's most revered artist, a true leader of Renaissance art....