3-002-478 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Saint Mary Magdalene, c1625-1635. In the New Testament, Mary from the town of Magdala was one of Christ's most loyal followers. Later tradition associated her with a reformed prostitute. The merging of these identities produced emotionally powerful images of a remorseful yet alluring young woman, meditating on death. Many people kept skulls for meditational purposes. Spadarino is one of several painters in Rome in the early 1600s who explored dramatic, compact compositions of a few figures in a dark space illuminated by a strong light, much like a modern "spotlight," an approach made famous by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571–1610).