"A woman knocks her head back. Her eyes and mouth are closed but she is awake. With flushed cheeks, red lips and long, golden hair, she glows from a sharply lit flame in a room otherwise cloaked in darkness. Wearing textures ranging from a lace-trimmed chemise blouse slipping down her right shoulder and exposing her porcelain skin to a heavy yellow and purple material, she appears to be alone. Unaware of our presence, she exists in a state of sublimity, but also freedom."
"The woman we are looking at is Mary Magdalene in ecstasy, painted in the early 1620s by Artemisia Gentileschi, the Italian baroque artist famed for her heroic and powerful depictions of mythological and biblical women. Recently acquired by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC, it will go on view free of charge from 24 February. While it is, monumentally, the institution's first acquisition by Gentileschi, it is also a picture that shows the saint neither repentant nor suffering,"
Artemisia Gentileschi painted Mary Magdalene in ecstasy in the early 1620s, portraying a luminous, solitary figure lit by a sharply focused flame against darkness. The figure’s garments range from a lace-trimmed chemise slipping off one shoulder to heavy yellow and purple fabrics, revealing porcelain skin and emphasizing texture and color. The depiction foregrounds sublimity and personal freedom rather than penitence or suffering. The National Gallery of Art in Washington, DC acquired the painting and will display it free from 24 February. Historical representations of Magdalene have been layered with fabricated identities and sexualized imagery that reshape her biblical ambiguity.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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