Editing Mary Magdalene (section)

===In Western art===
[[File:Guido Reni - The Penitent Magdalene - Google Art Project.jpg|thumb|upright|''Penitent Magdalene'' ({{circa}} 1635) by [[Guido Reni]], showing her as a penitent<ref>{{cite web|publisher= The Walters Art Museum|url= http://art.thewalters.org/detail/40183|title= The Penitent Magdalene|access-date= September 18, 2012|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20130517050215/http://art.thewalters.org/detail/40183|archive-date= May 17, 2013|url-status= live}}</ref>]]

The early notion of Mary Magdalene as a sinner and adulteress was reflected in Western medieval Christian art, where she was the most commonly depicted female figure after the [[Virgin Mary]]. She may be shown either as very extravagantly and fashionably dressed, unlike other female figures wearing contemporary styles of clothes, or alternatively as completely naked but covered by very long blonde or reddish-blonde hair. The latter depictions represent the ''[[Penitent Magdalene (disambiguation)|Penitent Magdalene]]''<!--intentional link to DAB page-->, according to the medieval legend that she had spent a period of repentance as a desert hermit after leaving her life as a follower of Jesus.{{sfn|Witcombe|2002|page=279}}{{sfn|Ferguson|1976|pages=134–135}} Her story became conflated in the West with that of [[Mary of Egypt]], a fourth-century prostitute turned hermit, whose clothes wore out and fell off in the desert.{{sfn|Witcombe|2002|page=279}} The widespread artistic representations of Mary Magdalene in tears are the source of the modern English word ''maudlin'',{{sfn|Lang|2003|page=33}}{{sfn|Kugelmann|1983|page=151}}{{sfn|Haskins|2005|page=xi}} meaning 'sickeningly sentimental or emotional'.{{sfn|Lang|2003|page=33}}

In medieval depictions Mary's long hair entirely covers her body and preserves her modesty (supplemented in some German versions such as one by [[Tilman Riemenschneider]] by [[Feather tights#Mary Magdalene's hair suit|thick body hair]]),{{sfn|Witcombe|2002|page=282}}{{sfn|Ferguson|1976|page=135}} but, from the sixteenth century, some depictions, like those by [[Titian]], show part of her naked body, the amount of nudity tending to increase in successive periods. Even if covered, she often wears only a drape pulled around her, or an undergarment. In particular, Mary is often shown naked in the legendary scene of her "Elevation", where she is sustained in the desert by angels who raise her up and feed her heavenly manna, as recounted in the ''[[Golden Legend]]''.{{sfn|Witcombe|2002|page=282}}

Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross during the Crucifixion appears in an eleventh-century English manuscript "as an expressional device rather than a historical motif", intended as "the expression of an emotional assimilation of the event, that leads the spectator to identify himself with the mourners".<ref>Schiller, II, 116</ref> Other isolated depictions occur, but, from the thirteenth century, additions to the Virgin Mary and [[John the Apostle|John]] as the spectators at the Crucifixion become more common, with Mary Magdalene as the most frequently found, either kneeling at the foot of the cross clutching the shaft, sometimes kissing Christ's feet, or standing, usually at the left and behind Mary and John, with her arms stretched upwards towards Christ in a gesture of grief, as in a damaged painting by [[Cimabue]] in the [[Basilica of San Francesco d'Assisi|upper church at Assisi]] of {{circa}} 1290. A kneeling Magdalene by [[Giotto]] in the [[Scrovegni Chapel]] ({{circa}} 1305) was especially influential.<ref>Schiller, II, 152–154</ref> As Gothic painted crucifixions became crowded compositions, the Magdalene became a prominent figure, with a halo and identifiable by her long unbound blonde hair, and usually a bright red dress. As the [[swooning Virgin Mary]] became more common, generally occupying the attention of John, the unrestrained gestures of Magdalene increasingly represented the main display of the grief of the spectators.<ref>Schiller, II, 154–158</ref>

According to Robert Kiely, "No figure in the Christian Pantheon except Jesus, the Virgin Mary, and John the Baptist has inspired, provoked, or confounded the imagination of painters more than the Magdalene."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/picturing-magdalene|title=Picturing the Magdalene: How Artists Imagine the Apostle to the Apostles|last=Kiely|first=Robert|date=September 6, 2010|publisher=[[Commonweal (magazine)|Commonweal]]|access-date=November 29, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161130035242/https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/picturing-magdalene|archive-date=November 30, 2016|url-status=live}}</ref> Apart from the Crucifixion, Mary was often shown in scenes of the [[Passion of Jesus]], when mentioned in the Gospels, such as the Crucifixion, [[Christ Carrying the Cross]] and [[Noli me Tangere]], but usually omitted in other scenes showing the [[Twelve Apostles]], such as the [[Last Supper]]. As Mary of Bethany, she is shown as present at the [[Resurrection of Lazarus]], her brother, and in the [[Jesus at the home of Martha and Mary|scene with Jesus]] and her sister [[Martha]], which began to be depicted often in the seventeenth century, as in ''[[Christ in the House of Martha and Mary (Velázquez)|Christ in the House of Martha and Mary]]'' by [[Velázquez]].<ref>Schiller, Gertud, ''Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. I'', pp. 158–159, 1971 (English trans from German), Lund Humphries, London, {{ISBN|0-85331-270-2}}</ref>

'''Gallery'''
<gallery mode="packed" heights="180">
File:Angelico, noli me tangere.jpg|''[[Noli me tangere]]'' ({{circa}} 1440 – 1442), fresco by [[Fra Angelico]]
File:María Magdalena leyendo, por Piero di Cosimo.jpg|''Mary Magdalene Reading'' ({{circa}} 1500 – 1510) by [[Piero di Cosimo]]
File:Tizian 050.jpg|''[[Noli me tangere (Titian)|Noli me tangere]]'' ({{circa}} 1512) by [[Titian]]
File:Ambrosius Benson - Mary Magdalene - WGA1890.jpg|''Mary Magdalene'' (early 1500s) by [[Ambrosius Benson]]
File:Giampietrino Magdalena penitente Hermitage.jpg|''Magdalena Penitente'' (early 1500s) by [[Giampietrino]]
File:Maino Magdalena penitente 1615 col par Ginebra.jpg|''Mary Magdalene'' (1615) by [[Juan Bautista Maíno]]
File:El Greco - The Penitent Magdalene - Google Art Project.jpg|''[[Penitent Magdalene (El Greco)|Penitent Magdalene]]'' ({{circa}} 1576 – 1578) by [[El Greco]]
File:Artemisia Gentileschi Mary Magdalene Pitti.jpg|''Mary Magdalene'' (1615–1616 or 1620–1625) by [[Artemisia Gentileschi]]
File:Lille Pdba rubens marie madeleine.JPG|''[[St Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy]]'' ({{circa}} 1619 – 1620) by [[Peter Paul Rubens]]
File:José de Ribera 024.jpg|''Mary Magdalene'' (1641) by [[José de Ribera]]
File:Georges de La Tour - Magdalen of Night Light - WGA12337.jpg|''[[Magdalene with the Smoking Flame]]'' ({{circa}} 1640) by [[Georges de La Tour]]
File:Pietro da Cortona - Cristo appare a Maria Maddalena.jpg|''Christ Appearing to Mary Magdalene'' (between 1640 and 1650) by [[Pietro da Cortona]]
File:George Romney - Lady Hamilton as The Magdalene.jpg|''The Magdalene'' (before 1792) by [[George Romney (painter)|George Romney]]
File:Mariya Magdalena.jpg|''[[Mary Magdalene (Sandys)|Mary Magdalene]]'' (1858–1860) by [[Frederick Sandys]]
File:Alfred Stevens (1823–1906) - Maria Magdalena - 1887 - MSK Gent 17-03-2009 12-18-27.JPG|[[Sarah Bernhardt]] as ''[[Maria Magdalena (Stevens)|Maria Magdalena]]'' (1887) by [[Alfred Stevens (painter)|Alfred Stevens]]
File:Albert Edelfelt - Christ and Mary Magdalene, a Finnish Legend - Google Art Project.jpg|''Christ and Mary Magdalene'' (1890) by [[Albert Edelfelt]] in a Finnish locale
File:Carlo Marochetti, La Madeleine du groupe sculptural le Ravissement de sainte Marie-Madeleine. 1843. Marbre. Maître-autel de l'église de la Madeleine de Paris. Photo, Jamie Mulherron.jpg|''The Ecstasay of Mary Magdalene'' (1843) by [[Carlo Marochetti]], located in [[La Madeleine, Paris|La Madeleine]] 
</gallery>