Boetvaardige Maria Magdalena 1644 - 1652

Wenceslaus Hollar made this print of the repentant Mary Magdalene sometime before his death in 1677. In it, Magdalene is kneeling and clasping her hands in prayer in a rocky grotto. The visual codes in this image operate at several levels. On the one hand, the grotto and Magdalene's simple dress indicate her rejection of worldly pleasures. But on the other, the cherubs floating above her and the detailed landscape are designed to appeal to wealthy collectors, and the print itself would have been sold as a luxury good. The Rijksmuseum acquired this print in 1882. By looking at the provenance records, we can see the changing tastes of collectors and the ways in which religious imagery has been valued differently over time. The social history of prints depends on archival work: looking at who owned them, how much they cost, and where they were displayed, to give us a richer picture of the past.