Mary Magdalene 1877

Dante Gabriel Rossetti rendered this Mary Magdalene in oils, using traditional artistic techniques. The smooth, blended surfaces don't immediately point to any evident labor, and yet, the layering of pigment is key. Consider the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, to which Rossetti belonged, their emphasis on intense color and detail. This required laborious underpainting, glazing, and blending to achieve luminous effects. The handling of light is crucial to this, but also Rossetti’s choice of pigments. The ochre, umber, and earth tones create a sense of warmth, and the interplay of light and shadow gives the figure a sense of depth and volume. The artist has carefully built up the painting’s surface to give a sense of depth and volume, and to evoke a sense of spiritual intensity, using a high level of craft to portray the sacred. By understanding Rossetti's meticulous process and the materials he employed, we can understand this painting's true meaning.