Penitent sinner or fiery saint? Mary Magdalene is one of the Bible's most divisive figures. These paintings show why

Known as the "apostle to the apostles”, the controversial and multifaceted saint Mary Magdalene is shrouded in mythology and mystery. What do these artworks reveal about her?

Few biblical figures have fascinated society more than Mary Magdalene, said to be the first person to witness Christ's resurrection and to share the news. For centuries, Magdalene, a follower of Jesus known as the "apostle to the apostles", has maintained a passionate following among religious and secular communities alike, despite the Bible containing relatively few references to her. As a result, the mythology surrounding her has eclipsed who she actually was.

Over time, Magdalene's name has come to represent an amalgamation of different biblical characters and historical ideas, some of which have become more strongly associated with her than the biblical accounts themselves. This is what Mary Magdalene. Sin. Pray. Love., an exhibition opening at the Städel Museum in Frankfurt explores.

"We essentially discovered that there are three Mary Magdalenes in one," says art historian Bastian Eclercy, who has co-curated the exhibition. "One is the nameless sinner, the other one is Mary of Bethany and the third is the biblical Mary Magdalene in the strict sense."

And as its title suggests, the exhibition looks at three key ways Magdalene has been represented. "'Sin' stands for the image of the sinner and penitent that has shaped perceptions over the centuries; 'Pray' for Mary Magdalene as a saint and disciple of Jesus; and 'Love' for the various notions of love, devotion and intimacy associated with her," Eclercy tells the BBC.

Here, we look at 10 works from the exhibition that illustrate the different views on Magdalene – and changing perceptions of women over time. 

In German artist Albrecht Dürer's woodcut print on paper, a nude Magdalene is lifted towards the sky by six angels. The scene is inspired by The Golden Legend, a 13th-Century text by the Italian chronicler and archbishop Jacobus de Voragine. In one of the popular stories included in the legend, Mary retreats to the South of France in search of solitude. "There was no food available in the wilderness, and so seven times a day, she was taken up by angels and elevated into heaven to listen to their music, and that was her food," Eclercy says.

While the Italian oil painting isn't immediately recognisable as Magdalene, for experts, the small vase in the left-hand corner and red dress (broadly associated with sensuality and danger) peeking out from underneath a silver satin cloak has helped to identify her.

"Some people have argued that it could be Mary the Mother [of Christ] because we don't have many obvious tropes, but I think it is Mary Magdalene because we've got that white alabaster jar in it," says Siobhan Jolley, lecturer in Christian studies at the University of Manchester in the UK, who is curating a National Gallery touring exhibition on Mary Magdalene, set to open in 2027. She notes that the jar is associated with the unnamed female "sinner" in the Bible who anointed Jesus's feet.

Artworks through the centuries that depict Magdalene do not, in Jolley's view, tell us much about her as an actual individual. "They tell us, to my mind at least, a lot more about what different cultures have wanted women to be," she says.

Italian Mannerist painter Lavinia Fontana paints Magdalene in her signature red dress. It is one of the few early depictions of the saint by a woman artist. "While you might be looking for a kind of female gaze, this is something that we could not detect," says Eclercy. Fontana directly references a biblical scene where Mary mistakes Jesus for a gardener. In the painting, he is dressed as a traditional 16th-Century Italian labourer in a wide-brimmed hat and tunic.

Many historical and contemporary ideas of Magdalene conflate different figures in the Bible, including an unnamed "sinful woman" who anointed Jesus's feet, an adulterer, and Mary of Bethany, the relative of two other biblical figures, Martha and Lazarus. "This is what [art historian] Marina Warner calls 'the muddle of Marys' – where artists are not separating between different Marys as long as [the figure] does whatever job she needs to do in the painting or the story to make a point," Jolley says. In Vouet's painting, Magdalene is in a made-up scene (not in the Bible) at a dressing table and is being reprimanded by her sister Martha for being too vain. 

Magdalene in a state of contrition is a popular trope in art history. "She has become a role model for penitents, both male and female," says Eclercy. Western traditions in particular have progressively associated Magdalene with sexual sin, something that becomes clear in many paintings such as Cagnacci's, where themes of sexual desire are inescapable. 

While there is no direct scripture stating the wrongdoing of the unnamed "sinful woman", many have presumed it to be sexual. "It's really common to hear her described as a sex worker particularly in older texts, though we don't have any real foundation for that in biblical documents," Jolley says. "For artists, it's an opportunity to be a bit racy with a holy image. They know they can get away with depicting her as alluring or slightly sexualised in a way that they can't with other saints." In Cagnacci's painting, Magdalene holds a skull, often used in art history as a reminder that life is short and that we should prepare our souls to meet God. 

Georges de La Tour's version of a "penitent Magdalene" is notably gentler. "I like that La Tour gives us a kind of interior Magdalene," says Jolley. "We've got mirrors, candles, and other tropes of time, mortality and self-reflection without the artist needing to make [the painting] appealing in some other way." His paintings could be said to reject traditional portrayals of women in art as decorative or erotic. 

The Swiss painter portrays a dramatic Magdalene standing by Jesus's lifeless body. Instead of conforming to traditional portrayals of Magdalene as subdued or overtly sexual, Böcklin creates this fiery character, permitted to express the full range of her emotions, and thus mourn Jesus intensely. "Mary Magdalene is taking on the role of the Virgin Mary in a way," says Eclercy. "Expressing the utmost grief that you can have."

Interchangeably titled Christ and the Sinner, or Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery, this painting is said to portray a famous biblical scene of Jesus stopping an angry mob from stoning an unnamed woman to death (a story that has become associated with Magdalene over time). In earlier works, where Magdalene is overly sexualised, "it tells us more about what people are imagining the worst thing a woman could be," Jolley says. Instead, Beckmann offers a more forgiving interpretation of this narrative. 

The South African artist's representation of Magdalene as Naomi Campbell addresses several ideas at once. Not only does it "say something about celebrity and reputation, which is what Mary Magdalene has endured throughout time," says Jolley, "it asks us to think about how we racialise beauty." While there is very little description in the Bible of Magdalene's physical appearance, in Western art, the saint is often portrayed as young and white. Dumas offers us something else to consider.

 "The work feels like a mirror for the audience... back on to society," Jolley adds, noting that people often feel like they know her despite understanding very little about her. "People have a parasocial relationship with Mary Magdalene. They have a sense of her that they encounter with popular culture and in art that isn't really underpinned by knowledge of the biblical character – or any real interest in that." 

Spanish visual artist Nieves González manages to keep many of Magdalene's trademarks – her auburn-blonde hair, red clothing, and her holding a skull – while modernising the famous figure by placing her in an oversized puffer jacket. Eclercy believes González is "presenting this extremely self-confident young woman." Magdalene's stare at the viewer is unapologetic. "This is a work about agency and ownership," Jolley adds. "You almost get a sense that she's kind of asking you, 'What do you want to say about me?'"

Mary Magdalene: Sin. Pray. Love. is at the Städel Museum, Frankfurt from 17 September to 17 January 2027.

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