Saint Mary Magdalen (c. 1630): Art, History and Details

Saint Mary Magdalen (c. 1630) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Simon Vouet (French, 1590–1649).

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

Simon Vouet worked in Rome for several years before he was summoned back to France in 1627 to serve as court painter to King Louis XIII. This painting, executed soon after his return, reveals how skillfully Vouet adapted his Italian experiences to local tastes: the focus on a single monumental figure, positioned close to the picture plane, reflects the influence of Caravaggio, but the vivid pastel colors accord with the French preference for a brighter palette. Representations of the penitent Magdalene as a hermit—expressing Christian devotion but also sensuality—were exceedingly popular in the 1600s.

Object facts

• Title: Saint Mary Magdalen
• Date: c. 1630
• Creator attribution: Simon Vouet (French, 1590–1649)
• Culture: France
• Type: Painting
• Technique: oil on panel
• Dimensions: Framed: 159 x 132 x 13 cm (62 5/8 x 51 15/16 x 5 1/8 in.); Unframed: 130.8 x 103.5 cm (51 1/2 x 40 3/4 in.)
• Collection: P - French 17th Century
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1988.108

A detail from the museum

The skull beside Mary symbolizes the fleeting nature of life and ultimate worthlessness of material possessions.

Collection credit

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Picart, Yves. La vie et l'œvre de Simon Vouet. Paris, France: Cahiers de Paris, 1958.
• Dargent, Georgette. "La Madeleine dans l'Oeuvre de Simon Vouet." Bulletin de Société de l'Histoire de l'Art Français 1959: 31–40.
• Crelly, William. The Painting of Simon Vouet. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1962.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.