Landschap met Maria Magdalena 1560 - 1600

This is an engraving of Mary Magdalene in a landscape, made by an anonymous artist. It uses conventional visual codes to present a biblical story. Mary Magdalene is seen kneeling in prayer, in a wild landscape, her face upturned to divine light breaking through the trees. The cultural references are clear: this is a story of repentance and divine forgiveness. The print would likely have been made in the Netherlands at some point during the 16th or 17th century. We can tell this from the landscape details and the style of engraving. Prints like this were made for a booming market, as the expanding merchant classes of the Netherlands acquired more disposable income and developed a taste for art. They could decorate their homes with affordable images that were both beautiful and uplifting. To understand this print better, we could research the print market of the period and study the theological debates around repentance. Understanding art means understanding its social and institutional context.