Maria Magdalena 1638 - 1655

Curator: Here we have Pieter van Schuppen's engraving of Maria Magdalena, estimated to have been created between 1638 and 1655. You can find it here at the Rijksmuseum. Editor: My goodness, there's so much drama in such tight lines. The way she's gazing upwards—it feels like a moment of intense, almost theatrical, surrender. But what’s the story behind this specific depiction? Curator: Van Schuppen was known for his skill at translating paintings into engravings. This piece highlights not only his technical prowess but also prevailing artistic tastes of the Baroque era and of representing powerful religious female figures in print culture. Look at how the medium renders every detail so meticulously, despite its reliance on strong contrasts. It underscores a tension between the beauty and penitence that Mary Magdalene represents. Editor: Yes! It's as if every etched line is both a celebration and a subtle critique. The skull is a blunt reminder of mortality and worldly vanities—fitting for the repentance narrative, but the overt sensuality clashes so intriguingly. A lot of Madonnas are softer in tone than this depiction. It’s the light—streaming down as a divine spotlight almost, adding to that theatrical air—making this figure really stand out in the visual field and perhaps in 17th century popular imagination as well. Curator: Exactly! That contrast made the image popular because it speaks volumes about how visual depictions shaped public understanding and the politics surrounding the depiction of saints. In this particular interpretation, she is stripped bare before divine judgment. Her gesture towards the skull reveals, literally, her acceptance of eventual death while she continues looking hopefully upwards toward redemption. It is Baroque painting translated into an engraving to sell this complicated moment and perspective to mass audiences, allowing many different private devotional understandings of Saint Mary Magdalene's transformation and commitment to spiritual redemption. Editor: Thinking about this engraving now, after our little exploration... it makes me feel how much we bring of ourselves, of our present day and time to the works and its own time! A collision. An eternal conversation.