Titian’s Magdalene: Sinner or Saint?

Titian’s Magdalene: Penitent Sinner or Sensual Saint? The following is a paper I wrote in the Fall of 2010 regarding the rise of eroticism in the Italian Cinquecento, specifically regarding Titian’s Pitti Magdalene.

Titian’s Magdalene (c. 1530, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, figure 1), is a portrayal of a radiant, sensual woman. She gazes heavenward with tear-filled eyes while billowing lustrous hair swirls around her body like a caress.  The woman depicted is Mary Magdalene, one of the most important women in the New Testament. In contrast to most religious imagery however, Titian’s Magdalene is depicted as an extremely sexual woman who, although draped in her arms and hair, leaves almost nothing to the imagination. Five hundred years after its creation, viewers are stunned by the highly eroticized Christian iconography in the piece. Was Titian’s Magdalene provocative at the time it was created, or is it our modern lenses that make viewers surprised by its sexual nature? This paper will argue that Titian was a part of a movement in the Italian Cinquecento characterized by highly sexualized religious imagery. Furthermore, for Titian especially, the religious subject matter of Magdalene served more as a moralizing varnish to paint erotic imagery than a sincere devotional endeavor.

In fully understanding the painting, we first need to step back and understand who Mary Magdalene was and what she represented in the Italian fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Mary Magdalene is an interesting figure in Christianity because she held a vast array of connotations for society. As a ‘composite’ saint, several personas made up her identity and were thus reflected in her artistic iconography (Tinagli, Women in Italian Renaissance Art: Gender Representation Identity, 174). She was a woman freed from demons who first met Christ after his resurrection and found his empty sepulcher; she was a woman forgiven for her sins after anointing Christ’s feet and drying them with her hair; she was Mary of Bethany (the sister of Martha and Lazarus); and she was Mary of Egypt, a prostitute repenting in the desert covered only by her hair (Tinagli, 174).

Her array of personas made Mary Magdalene a popular subject for religious artwork. During the Renaissance, there were strict standards regarding what made a good woman and what made a bad woman. Good women were chaste, beautiful and obedient while bad women were independent and promiscuous (Monteleon, “Heavenly Venus: Mary Magdalene in Heavenly Noli Me Tangere Images,” ix). Mary Magdalene’s story allows her an interesting dual identity. On one hand, she was originally assumed to be a prostitute and temptress, which give her traits of a wanton woman. Concurrently, however, she also found faith in Jesus Christ and became a model of chastity and obedience (Monteleon, ix). This combination of ideal and wanton gave Mary Magdalene multiple attributes in art: the saint and sinner, the chaste and seductive, the fallen and forgiven, the loving and lustful, and so on (Monteleon, ix). Thus, painting Mary Magdalene was essentially the ultimate excuse to paint the Renaissance male’s fantasy: a woman of smoldering beauty and sexuality who, in meeting Jesus, repents for her sins and assumes ultimate obedience to a man.

Because of this dichotomy, Mary Magdalene has had extremely contrasting depictions throughout history. Only a century before Titian painted his Magdalene, much of the artwork dedicated to her was of the hideous, gaunt, and unkempt prostitute. Arguably the most famous of these representations is Donatello’s statue, Magdalene (c. 1455, figure 2) at the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence. The sculpture gawks unnervingly at the viewer, her scraggily knee-length hair framing her haggard emaciated face and tattered drapery. The tortured Magdalene illustrated an example of severe repentance for viewers as she suffered in the desert to be forgiven of her sins (Tinagli, 174).

In contrast, Titian’s Magdalene embodies the epitome of sixteenth-century Venetian beauty: she has white radiant skin, small firm breasts and glistening auburn hair (Tinagli, 175). Titian was not alone in painting beautiful Magdalene’s. A pattern emerged early in the sixteenth century in Northern Italy which depict Mary Magdalene as a young, healthy, beautiful woman (Tinagli, 175). Why the drastic change? Michelle Monteleon argues that shifts in the depiction of Mary Magdalene occurred as shifts in Renaissance power and society did (Monteleon, 36). One of these societal changes was an emerging interest in humanism which led to a huge change in the progression of art, and especially art depicting women. Church patrons, who were obligated to commission religious art, could at least make requests in the treatment and style of the work. Furthermore, an increase in new patrons allowed for a broadening of subject matter and increase in humanist influence. As the shameful connotation of nudity and sexuality in art shrunk, artist’s freedom to paint erotic subject matter grew (Monteleon, 47). Mary Magdalene represented the perfect theme in order to paint extremely sexual content while masking her licentiousness under an umbrella of religion.

Titian’s Magdalene is an excellent example of the progression of art via forward-thinking, humanist patrons at the time. Many are surprised that a painting of such sexual nature was actually intended as a gift for a woman. Vittoria Colonna (1490-1547), Marchioness of Pescara, was a very respected and devout poet (Debby, Vittoria Colonna and Titian’s Pitti “Magdalene,” 29). The painting was commissioned by Federigo Gonzaga, the son of Isabella d’Este, but was always intended as a gift for Vittoria. Vittoria represented a rarity in the Renaissance as a woman held in high esteem by great men, as well as a model of piety for women. Michelangelo is perhaps one of her most famous friends, who praised her in poems in addition to rendering her portrait (Debby, 30). There is evidence that Vittoria loved Titian’s Magdalene both in her letters of thanks to Federigo and acclaim of Titian (Debby, 29). Scholars such as Rona Goffen insist that Vittoria’s praise is a sign that, although sensual, the painting was created to elicit the Renaissance beholders pious emotion (Goffen, Titian’s Women, 186). In many of Vittoria’s poems regarding Mary Magdalene, she does refer to it as inherently spiritual but with sensual undertones. Even for the Renaissance viewer, however, the sexual nature of the piece was not merely an undertone. Could Vittoria’s acceptance of the eroticism present in Titian’s Magdalene be proof a new acceptance of highly sexual imagery?

One of the reasons for a rise in sensuality in Renaissance art is the emergence of humanism. Many scholars draw a direct correlation between Titian’s Magdalene and secular mythological women similar to those seen in Botticelli’s mythical goddesses Flora (Primavera) and Venus (The Birth of Venus) (Debby, 29). The philosophy behind this depiction was that Magdalene’s sincere repentance was illustrated by contrasting it with her seductive beauty (Tinagli, 175). As the goddess of beauty, pleasure and love, Venus would have been an appropriate model for Titian’s Magdalene. Compositionally, Titian’s Magdalene is very similar to Venus Anadyomene (c. 1525; National Gallery of Scotland, Edinburgh, figure 2). Both images are of sensual, alluring female nudes and are in three-quarter length portraits (Monteleon, 60). Additionally, both paintings are also back-dropped by dark, stormy skies, and showcase golden, lustrous hair.

Although it does seem that Titian’s Magdalene intentionally drew off of mythological sensuality, it seems to make a leap beyond this form of sensuality and into overt eroticism (even for Renaissance standards). Her right hand covers her heart, but also emulates the hand gesture in the classic Venus Pudica pose (Debby, 29). Although this pose pretends to indicate modesty, in actuality it elicits eroticism rather than reserve (Debby, 29). In this case, not only does the position of her hands leave her breasts exposed, it essentially draws attention to them.

Her hair, which admittedly is a large part of Mary Magdalene’s iconography, also had an erotic charge for Renaissance viewers. As Bess Bradfield points out in her essay dedicated to Mary Magdalene’s hair, the Catholic Encyclopedia offers a possible etymology for Mary Magdalene’s name as “a Talmudic expression for ‘curling woman’s hair’, which the Talmud explains is that of an adulteress” (Bradfield, “The Hair of the Desert Magdalen: Its Use and Meaning in Donatello’s Mary Magdalen and Tuscan Art of the Late Fifteenth Century,” 1). Although this etymology for her name is speculative, it does point to a link between long, loose hair and female sexuality. Long, abundant hair is present in all of Mary Magdalene’s depictions, but tells a different story depending on the piece. For Donatello’s Magdalene, it is a representation of her licentiousness and sin. Although long and loose, it is also ragged and coarse. It is a reminder to the viewer of her female impurity, the reason for which she is miserably repenting in the desert. In Titian’s piece, however, it takes on a highly eroticized role. It drapes around her body like a sheer, glistening negligée. Rather than alluding to the repentance of her sin, it alludes to the sin itself: her sexuality. Furthermore, her hair, which exudes plenty of erotic charge on its own, goes further in acting as a glowing frame for her bare breasts.

For twenty-first century viewers, breasts certainly have a sexual implication. Did they have a similar meaning for viewers during the sixteenth century? Susan Suleimon discusses in depth the role of the breasts in Renaissance art. In her explanation, she describes two depictions of the breast. The first is the nursing virgin’s exposure of the breast, which is not meant to elicit lust. In these depictions, one breast is often times exposed and cone shaped while breastfeeding Christ. Her other breast is practically non-existent as it is flattened beneath her clothes (Suleimon, The Female Body in Western Culture: Contemporary Perspectives, 204). In these depictions, the exposure of the breast is shown as an appendage to feed Christ and not as a part of the female body – it was solely exposed to represent nourishment (Suleimon, 204). The other representation of breasts is the exposure of them as if they were still confined in garments. In this sense they were often times small and high. In depicting them as if the viewer was seeing a “denuded” body, the exposure was sexually appealing to Renaissance viewers (Suleimon, 203). The latter seems perfectly befitting of Titian’s Magdalene. Not only are they small and high as if they were lifted under garments, they are also barely exposed as if her hair and arms should be covering them as well.

Titian was not the only artist who began painting intentionally erotic imagery in this period. Jill Burke believes that an “eroticization of vision” emerged in the Italian cinquecento in which art and literature were created specifically to arouse the viewer sexually. Examples of these works include Rosso Fiorentino’s Dead Christ (c. 1520, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, figure 5), Sebastiano del Piombo’s Martyrdom of Saint Agatha (c. 1520, Palazzo Pitti, Florence, figure 6) and Parmigianino’s Madonna of the Rose (c. 1528, Gemäldegalerie, Dresden, figure 4) (Burke, 482). Renaissance viewers were increasingly obsessed with the humanity of the divine (Monteleon, 46). Although all of the pieces have religious subject matter, they also contain erotic, and arguably unnecessary, erotic undertones. In fact, Burke sites an event in which Giorgio Vasari viewed Sebastiano del Piombo’s Maryrdom of Saint Agatha in the guardaroba (a room where valuables are stored) at the duke of Urbino’s estate (Burke “Sex and Spirituality in 1500s Rome: Sebastiano Del Piombo’s Martyrdom of Saint Agatha,” 484). Vasari states in his Italian artist biography, “a very beautiful Saint Agatha, naked and martyred in her breasts, which was a rare thing…and not in any way inferior to many other most beautiful paintings that are there by the hand of Raphael of Urbino, Titian and others.” The collection Vasari is referring to includes multiple male and female portraits, many of which with no religious subject matter at all. Burke views this setting as proof that both Sebastiano’s Saint Agatha, and Titian’s Magdalene were created for aesthetic and erotic purposes rather than genuinely religious intentions (Burke, 484).

What did the church think of all of this? There was a very important discrepancy at this time regarding whether imagery was an intentional elicitation of lust as opposed to a Classical nude. The line was drawn with force by the Church. The engraver of Giulio Romano’s set of drawings depicting sexual positions known as the I Modi (c. 1523, Rome, figure 7) was imprisoned for being a part of the project (Burke, 484). The fact that sexually explicit imagery was intertwined with religious art became another concern for Catholic reformers as well. Later in the century the Council of Trent made a formal ruling in 1563 that in religious images “figures shall not be painted or adorned with a beauty exciting to lust” (Burke, 484). This is proof that there was a discourse regarding eroticism in religious imagery due to a legitimate increase in sex in religious painting.

No one can really be sure what Titian’s intent was in painting his Magdalene. Perhaps as Monika Ingenhoff-Danhiluser argues, “religious edification and profane fantasy are at the beholder’s own discretion” (Aikema, Titian’s Mary Magdalene in the Palazzo Pitti: An Ambiguous Painting and Its Critics, 49). In my opinion, nothing about the outrageously voluptuous and exposed Magdalene represents a life of austerity. In being questioned about the painting, Titian himself grinningly explained that “he had painted the saint as she appeared just moments before she repented – that is, when she was still a prostitute, and a beautiful one at that (Tinagli, 181). To depict a prostitute one must depict eroticism. Any legitimate religious message is questionable in Titian’s Magdalene, her sexuality, however, is not.

Works Cited

Aikema, Bernard. “Titian’s Mary Magdalene in the Palazzo Pitti: An Ambiguous Painting and Its Critics.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 57 (1994): 48-59. JSTOR. Web. 13 Oct. 2010. .

Bernard Aikema’s Titian’s Mary of Magdalene in the Palazzo Pitti is a wonderfully in-depth analysis of the painting. Specifically helpful to my paper was his discussion of whether we should “conclude that Titian’s Magdalene is an erotic picture…tritely concealed under an edifying varnish” or not. He classifies Titian’s Magdalene as a part of a “special genre that the artist himself created for his contemporaries: a religious image, overt in the sensuality of its appeal, that at once inspires devotion and sustains delection.” Was Titian endowing us the right to decide whether the “religious edification and profane fantasy are at the beholder’s own discretion” or was the piece a sort of religious test to the viewer to observe it in a non-sexual way?

Bradfield, Bess. “The Hair of the Desert Magdalen: Its Use and Meaning in Donatello’s Mary Magdalen and Tuscan Art of the Late Fifteenth Century.” The University of York. Web. .

Brown, David Alan, Pagden Sylvia. Ferino, Jaynie Anderson, and Barbara Hepburn. Berrie. Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 2006. Print.

An important context to consider, especially in art of the Italian Renaissance, is to consider the competition present with other artists in the area and between major cultural cities. Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, and the Renaissance of Venetian Painting discusses how these major Venetian players drew off of each other’s expertise and competed for patronage in the city. The layout of the book is interesting in that it’s organized by the rise in pastoral landscapes, secular subject matter, female nudes, and transformation of religion. Most of these subjects are extremely helpful in my understanding of their place in sixteenth century Italy.

Burke, Jill. “Sex and Spirituality in 1500s Rome: Sebastiano Del Piombo’s Martyrdom of Saint Agatha.” Art Bulletin 88.3 (2006): 482-95. EBSCO. Web. 13 Oct. 2010. .

Jill Burke’s article “Sex and Spirituality in 1500s Rome: Sebastiano Del Piombo’s Martyrdom of Saint Agatha” was both the inspiration for my paper as well as my most helpful resource. Burke’s article is the most concise and clear resource I found in its ability to discuss erotic imagery in religious art of the sixteenth century from a broader standpoint. Although I do not discuss Sebastiano Del Piombo’s Maryrdom of Saint Agatha in detail, the points Burke uses uncover the eroticism of the piece were key in my analysis of similar themes in Titian’s Magdalene. Much of her discussion regarded the vast difference between subject matter we find erotic versus its connotation in Renaissance Italy. Ultimately, I agreed with Burke in her theory that although scenes such as Martyrdom of Saint Agatha are much more uncomfortable for modern tastes, the painting still illustrated “an ‘eroticization of vision’ …that was explicitly created to arouse the viewer sexually” in sixteenth century Italy. The article proposed an interesting argument surrounding what the church considered an intentional elicitation of lust as opposed to an innocent nude.

Debby, Nirit Ben-Aryeh. “Vittoria Colonna and Titian’s Pitti “Magdalene” Woman’s Art Journal 24 (2003): 29-33. JSTOR. Web. 13 Oct. 2010. .

Nirit Ben-Aryeh Debby’s article, “Vittoria Colonna and Titian’s Pitti “Magdalene,” is another wonderful analysis of painting both from a stylistic and historical perspective. The most unique aspect of this article was its description of the transformation of Magdalene in art between the fifteenth and sixteenth century. Strikingly opposite of Titian’s Magdalene is Leonardo’s in which Magdalene is portrayed as a desexualized “ascetic hermit.” Although part of a larger trend in depicting Magdalene, Debby further explores the sensuality of the painting in relation to its extremely pious and respected patron, Vittoria Colonna who received it as a gift from Federigo Gonzaga. She also discusses how the piece may be a result of the convergence of the sensual mythological pagan female form with the Christian counterpart. In general, the article provides a wonderful analysis of the surrounding context, which sparks so much interest in Titian’s Magdalene.

Goffen, Rona. Titian’s Women. New Haven: Yale UP, 1997. Print.

Rona Goffen’s book, Titian’s Women, is an interesting analysis of Titian’s attitude towards women through both the women in his life and the women in his paintings. She ultimately decides that far from being a “high-class pornographer,” Titian is sympathetic towards women and often illustrates them as empowered figures in his artwork. Admittedly, I only found this book because multiple authors taking part in the Titian dialogue had issues with certain aspects of the book. Most authors, such as Ingrid Rowland and Loren Partridge, did agree with most of Goffen’s argument. However, they often also found it fundamentally flawed in many assumptions she makes about Titian. Specifically speaking to Titian’s Magdalene, Partridge argues that “Goffen is unwilling to consider Christian allusions in Titian’s secular works. She simply rejects the pervasive Christian and moral impulses underlying Renaissance Neoplatonism and literature featuring pagan myths. She designates Titian’s erotic conception of Mary Magdalene a “Christian Venus” (192) understanding her sensuality as expressive of spiritual ecstasy, but refuses to grant that Jupiter’s rape of Europa or of Danae might have carried Christian meaning.” In the end, Goffen has some wonderful arguments as well as points of contention, which add to my argument.

Monteleon, Michelle. “Heavenly Venus: Mary Magdalene In Renaissance Noli Me Tangere Images.” University of South Florida, 2004. Web. 8 Dec. 2010. .

Pagden, Sylvia Ferino, and Sciré, Giovanna Nepi. Late Titian and the Sensuality of Painting. Venice: Marsilio, 2008. Print.

Late Titian ad the Sensuality of Painting provides a wonderful insight on Titian and his avid portrayal of sensuality in his paintings. Specifically helpful were the scholarly essays included in the book which covered a wide variety of works by Titian as well as general analysis about his stylistic achievements. Although several sections touched on Titian’s Magdalene, it was most helpful in broadening my understanding of Titian’s life and work.

Rowland, Ingrid D. From Heaven to Arcadia: the Sacred and the Profane in the Renaissance. New York: New York Review, 2008. Print.

In From Heaven to Arcadia: the Sacred and the Profane in the Renaissance, Ingrid Rowland “traces the worldly, unworldly, and otherworldly strivings of artists, writers, popes, and politicians during that great ‘outburst of mental energy’ we know as the Renaissance.” Rowland’s book is a magnificent account of life during the Renaissance, with a great focus on its art. Most helpful to my topic were her chapters entitled “Titian: The Sacred and Profane,” and “Titian: From Heaven to Arcadia.” She tackles Titian from a unique perspective that breaks from the more common dialogue surrounding Titian’s work. I particularly love her reaction to Rona Goeffen’s book, Titian’s Women, in which she argues that “Titian has always been his own best advocate. He scarcely needs defending against academically minded detractors, whether they be sixteenth-century Tuscan chauvinists like Giorgio Vasari, a painter and biographer clearly taking aim at a Venetian rival, or present-day critical theorists who want to identify and deplore “the male gaze.” In conclusion, Rowland provides a unique and beautifully written description of the Renaissance, which I highly recommend.

Suleimon, Susan. The Female Body in Western Culture: Contemporary Perspectives. Harvard College, 1986. Print.

Talvacchia, Bette. Taking Positions: on the Erotic in Renaissance Culture. Princeton: Princeton Univ, 2001. Print.

In Taking Positions: on the Erotic in Renaissance Culture, Bette Talvacchia provides an in-depth analysis of Giulio Romano’s set of drawings depicting sexual positions known as the I Modi. Titian’s Magdalene and Giulio Romano’s I Modi are vastly different in terms of their erotic nature and a comparison of the two is almost ridiculous. However, her analysis of the origin, impact, and context of these drawings was an enlightening aid in my study of the context of eroticism in Italian Renaissance culture. Talvacchia’s discussion of the Church’s fierce opposition to the artwork (going so far as to imprison the engraver) brings up the question of where the line was drawn between sensuality, eroticism and the obscene for sixteenth century viewers.

Tinagli, Paola. Women in Italian Renaissance Art: Gender Representation Identity. Manchester: Manchester UP, 1997. Print.

Paola Tinagli’s Women in Italian Renaissance Art: Gender Representation Identity was one of my more general sources but was helpful none-the-less. Tinagli discusses the role of women during the Italian Renaissance and their subsequent depictions in art. Although there was little discussion of eroticism in Italian Renaissance art, there was a vast amount of material regarding women and their sexuality during the Italian Renaissance. He also included a helpful section specifically regarding Titian’s Magdalene. Although it did not provide much commentary on my thesis, it did provide a good history and context of the painting and patrons.

Titian. St. Mary Magdalene. 1535. Oil on wood. Galleria Palatina, Florence, Italy.

Wolf, Norbert, and Tiziano Vecellio. I, Titian. Munich: Prestel, 2006. Print.

The style of I, Titian immediately reminded me of Goeffen’s statement that “Titian has always been his own best advocate.” This was an especially helpful and interesting source due to its inclusion of Titian’s own words woven throughout the book. It touched on Magdalene, but was most helpful in illustrating Titian’s great personality and life history.