Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene

Chief Witness, Sinner, Feminist Waanders Publishers, Zwolle Museum Catharijneconvent

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Mary Magdalene Chief Witness, Sinner, Feminist

Waanders Publishers, Zwolle Museum Catharijneconvent, Utrecht

Marieke van Schijndel

Foreword 11–12

Lieke Wijnia

The many faces of Mary Magdalene An introduction 13–21

Caroline Vander Stichele

Mary Magdalene portrayed on the silver screen 26–31

Robin Griffith Jones

The Gnostic Magdalene?

From John's Gospel to Dan Brown 36–45

Joan E. Taylor

Visualising the real Mary Magdalene 46–49

Frank G. Bosman

An amazing story Mary of Magdala in the Roman Catholic tradition 54–63

Devon Abts

Perceptions of the Magdalene in the Noli me tangere 64–69

Marije de Nood

‘Show me someone who is not fallen’ Sister Maria Magdalena on the special bond with her namesake 70–71

Joanne Anderson

The Magdalene: cultural icon 78–85

Lieke Wijnia

Her body as battlefield Femininity in the conceptualisation of Mary Magdalene 90–99

Bibliography Desirée Krikhaar

Mary of Magdala –Mary Magdalene Image of a saint between East and West 104–113

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Register 137

Photo credits 138

Diane Apostolos-Cappadona

Mary Magdalene’s left hand

Authors 139

118–121

Credits 140 Lieke Wijnia

A seated powerhouse Is this the Mary Magdalene of the twenty-first century?

126–131

Thanks to 141

Lenders 141

T his crowned Magdalene once stood in

Utrecht’s Dom Church, which was rededicated in 1172. The ceremony took place on 22 July, the feast of Mary Magdalene. St Mary Magdalene, c. 1450, is one of the five so-called Utrecht Cathedral Statues from the Domkerk that survived the Iconoclasm. (Utrecht, Centraal Museum, 1788/005).

A blush on her cheeks, Mary Magdalene breathes

in the scents rising from her ointment jar. The deep folds of her dress and her thickly plaited hair are characteristic of sculptures by the Master of the Utrecht Stone Head of a Woman. St Mary Magdalene, c. 1520–1530. (Münster, LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur, E-610 LM).

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Foreword

Mary Magdalene is regarded as the woman who perhaps got closest to Jesus. She announced his Resurrection, which made her the apostle of the apostles. Yet she was also considered to be a sinner, a fallen woman, and at the same time a hermit and a saint. How did that all come about? Who was she? Her complex personality is one of the most intriguing in the Bible. The interpretation of the figure encountered there is problematic in itself. In Western Christendom she attracted all sorts of myths and fabrications in the centuries that followed, and they changed her personality out of all recognition. Remarkably, she never lost any of that baggage; she just gained more stories and qualities. In the centuries following the first source texts she became above all a mirror of society. It was through her that people regarded virtue and sin, as well as the role of women in society and the Church. She became a plaything of forces and opposing forces. That is what makes her such a fascinating figure. In Eastern Christendom she remained far closer to the woman who is described in the Bible. Her image as an anointer of Jesus is the same in east and west, and in both traditions she is depicted as a woman with a costly jar of ointment. It is the symbol of tenderness and dignity. But behind that constant, Mary Magdalene’s is an incredible story of shape-shifting.

It is no wonder that she has perpetually been inspiring fascinating works of art.

The oldest art object in this exhibition is an ivory carving from the end of the eleventh century with two biblical scenes in which she plays an important part: the Descent from the Cross and the Three Marys at the Tomb. In fact, very little is said about her in the Bible, but when she does appear it is at crucial events. She then stands close to Jesus, visited his tomb, and was the person to whom he first appeared after rising from the dead. He asked her to bring that good news to the apostles. Very recent artworks usually stress the feminist interpretation of the story, namely that despite her important role as the first witness to the Resurrection she was not believed because she was a woman. Artists like Marlene Dumas, Kiki Smith and Patricia Cronin hold her character up as a mirror in which to view our own day. There is also an interest in films that have made important contributions to shaping her contemporary image.

This book contains a wide range of views of this fascinating woman by authors from various disciplines and countries. Together they sketch a many-sided portrait of Mary Magdalene, or perhaps more accurately of the periods, societies and viewpoints from which she is seen. The exhibition and book are part of a series of projects in which Museum Catharijneconvent has been turning a spotlight on key figures of Christendom. They explore its many voices, culture and dynamic nature, which are timeless.

We are very grateful to the authors for their contributions, as well as to the members of the scholarly advisory committee for this project: Joanne Anderson, Diane Apostolos-Cappadona, Ann-Sophie Lehmann. Together with our curator Lieke Wijnia and the project group they have greatly enriched the content.

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Foreword

The museum is delighted that its own collection, which supplied exhibits for the show, has acquired a rich context in the form of generous loans from home and abroad. Sending artworks on their travels is no sinecure in this age of corona.

We are indebted to Karin Langeveld and Cuby Gerards of design studio Trapped in Suburbia for an exhibition design in which Mary Magdalene speaks to us so well through the works of art. Our thanks, too, to Esther de Vries for the well-matched book design.

Without the financial support of foundations and funds those efforts would have been in vain. We are grateful to the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the BankGiro Loterij, and to the funds and foundations that contributed so generously to the realisation of the exhibition and publication. I would especially like to thank the Turing Foundation, Blockbusterfonds, K.F. Hein Fonds, VSB Fonds, Iona Stichting, Sormanifonds, Hendrik Mullerfonds, Professor Van Winterfonds, the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, the Sisters of Providence (Maria Stroot Fonds), Fonds Museum Catharijneconvent and the Friends of Museum Catharijneconvent.

The result is magnificent. We see how Mary Magdalene still appeals to the imagination. How her tenacious image as a sinner also turns her into a figure embodying hope. And although we are learning more and more about her, she still remains shrouded in mystery. There is no such thing as a definitive image of Mary Magdalene, because we ourselves never stop reshaping her.

Marieke van Schijndel Director

Foreword

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Lieke Wijnia

Centuries of inspiration

The many faces of Mary Magdalene An introduction

There are few figures in the Bible as puzzling as Mary Magdalene. For more than two millennia now she has been the subject of theological discussion and artistic depictions. This book will show how this dynamic story has created an image of a saint that is complex and sometimes contradictory. The question of the source of those contradictions and how they have fused in one and the same individual was the point of departure for Mary Magdalene: the Exhibition in Museum Catharijneconvent in Utrecht.

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Sources There are few direct references to Mary Magdalene in the four gospels of the New Testament, and even they are different in nature and sometimes contradictory. They are evidence that she was already being interpreted in these early sources. There are also other early Christian descriptions of her that did not surface until the late nineteenth and mid-twentieth centuries, when long-hidden writings were discovered at various places in Egypt. These are also called Gnostic texts, because their central theme is gnosis, or self-knowledge, which was regarded as the key to salvation in this early Christian ideology. According to these writings, Mary Magdalene had great spiritual knowledge and a close bond with Jesus.

It is remarkable that these texts, which were written in the first centuries after Christ, seem to tie in with the outlook of our present age. The last few decades have seen a great deal of interest in less well-represented groups, and forgotten or disbelieved stories.

Although Mary Magdalene is given the task of announcing Christ’s Resurrection to the other apostles in John’s gospel, later theologians cast doubt on that role. Mainly because she was a woman.

And as the following examples will show, because she was also thought to be a sinful and adulterous woman.

Surprisingly enough, there is no such doubt about Mary Magdalene in Eastern Christendom. The Orthodox Church regards her as one of the women who went to the tomb on Easter morning in order to anoint Jesus’s body. She is a bearer of myrrh who has the honorary title of ‘Equal to the Apostles’. The appearance of Mary Magdalene as a myrrh-bearer is a uniting factor between Eastern and Western Christendom, as can be seen in the earliest work of art in the exhibition. It is an ivory relief that was made at the end of the eleventh century, probably to adorn the cover of a gospel book [fig. 01]. This devout Magdalene, Christ’s loyal disciple, was constantly reinterpreted and rediscovered throughout history. But the sinful and remorseful Magdalene also appeals to contemporary artists. For example, the ceramicist Kiki Lamers took the Magdalene who lived for 30 years as a hermit as the subject for one of her series [fig. 02]. Instead of concentrating on her penitence, Lamers was actually inspired by her way of life. Her immersion in perfect harmony with nature is what appealed to Lamers in this part of Mary Magdalene’s story.

As the national Dutch museum for the art and heritage of Christianity, Museum Catharijneconvent is the obvious location for an exhibition about Mary Magdalene. After previous shows devoted to exceptional religious and biblical figures like the Virgin Mary, Luther and St Francis, it is now the turn of this fascinating woman.

The museum’s collection contains superb works of art in which she is portrayed. One of the star pieces, which is on show in the exhibition, is a late medieval sculpture of a kneeling Mary Magdalene and a standing woman, both of them gazing upwards as they weep [fig. 03]. Once part of a larger group of figures, they are probably looking up at the crucified Jesus. The sculpture is highly detailed, with the Magdalene’s beautifully worked wavy hair and sumptuous gown. This is the rich, independent woman who became one of Jesus’s followers after her repentance, and stayed with him right up to his death on the Cross.

The many faces of Mary Magdalene

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he magnificence of Mary T Magdalene’s clothing and jewellery are usually allusions to the opulent, worldly life she led before her conversion. The medieval Golden Legend even says that she was of royal blood.

Circle of Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, The Lamentation, detail, 1520–1529. (Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent, ABM s116).

lfred Stevens painted an A idealised nineteenth-century picture of Mary Magdalene, but did not gloss over the guilt that weighed her down. Tears glisten in her eyes. Mary Magdalene, 1887. (Ghent, Museum voor Schone Kunsten, 2001-Q).

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Joan E. Taylor

Visualising the real Mary Magdalene

In the beginning there was a woman In Western art, Mary Magdalene can be depicted as wearing fine, high-fashion and quite revealing clothes, in line with medieval stories that she was a noblewoman. In this portrayal, seen for example in the painting from the workshop of the Master of 1518 [fig. 50] or the circle of Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen [fig. 23], her fancy cuffs and hairstyle portray her as the ultimate wealthy fashionista. She is also often shown with long, flowing hair, as in Alfred Stevens’ painting of 1887 [fig. 24], since she is traditionally identified with the repentant women who washed Jesus’ feet with her tears and wiped them with her hair (Luke 7:36-50, and see John 12:1-18). Invariably, she is pale-skinned, and her hair is often abundant, golden and wavy.

But what of the real woman? The real Mary was, like Jesus, Jewish. Her name in Aramaic, the main language of Jesus’s region, was ‘Mariam’, though this is found usually in the Gospels as ‘Maria’, in Greek form. Mariam was a very common name. The meaning of her epithet ‘the Magdalene’ is a subject of debate. Did she come from a place called Magdala (‘the Tower’) or was this a name that indicated she was a towering figure? This debate about her nickname is already found among Christian scholars of the fourth century (Eusebius and Jerome).

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Jews of first-century Judaea did not have pale skin and blonde hair. We need to imagine Mary as a Middle Eastern woman, with black hair, olive-brown skin and brown eyes. On the basis of what we know from burials, people were not very tall, and she was probably no more than 152 cm in height.1 We don’t know her age from the Gospels.

As for her family circumstances, that depends on whether we identify her with the Mary who was the sister of Martha (John 11-12; Luke 10:38-42).

How can we imagine her accurately in her time? There is a great deal of archaeological and pictorial evidence that enables us to visualise how women dressed, though features of clothing depended on social class. Was Mary rich or poor? We don’t know, but it is likely that, as a disciple of Jesus, she followed his instructions to wear only basic clothing (e.g. Mark 6:9, and see also Luke 3:11). The Gospel of Luke (8:13) sweeps her into a category of women who gave their ‘resources’ to the movement and were on the road with Jesus, but we don’t know in her case if these were the resources of a wealthy woman or a poor widow. That she had her own resources to dispose of indicates that she was independent. It is this mention that fed the later tradition that she was high-born and rich.

First-century Judaea was an area where East met West, and people probably dressed as elsewhere in the Mediterranean, but with some distinctive styling. We know this from remnants of clothing, sandals, hairnets, and even human hair, found in the dry region beside the Dead Sea.

Visualising the real Mary Magdalene

Most women wore long, loose tunics, often highly coloured. They were very simple, straight up and down, usually with two stripes running shoulder to hem. The differences between rich and poor were in types of fabric and colour.

Rich women wore fine cloth, expertly woven, coloured with expensive dyes; poor women had rougher fabrics, and they spun, dyed and wove them at home. Most people wore clothes made of wool, and for the poor these too could be coloured brightly using local plants: reds, yellows, pinks, greens, oranges.

In warmer places linen could also be worn, which was not dyed, though in general linen tunics were only worn as undergarments. Coloured tunics were made out of two pieces, sewn at the top and the sides, with the ‘arms’ left open.

They were not close-fitting for ordinary women, as they had to allow for pregnancy and breast-feeding. Shape to the body was created by folds into cloth belts tied under the breasts and sometimes also at the hips, or pinned tucks along the upper arms, not by cutting or darts.

Women did not have long, flowing hair.

They wore their hair up, in buns. To let a woman’s hair down would have taken time; usually women let down their hair to hang loose only for mourning.

Elite women had slaves who would sew and pin their hair into place, or they secured it with hair nets. Poor women wore bands and scarves. Rich women could also cover their heads with a large mantle in public to show refined modesty when they went out. For slaves and poor women who were working physically, out all the time in a hot country, it was probably not usual to wear a full mantle. But modesty was considered a fine feature in a woman. From statues, reliefs, mosaics and paintings from Roman Syria and the synagogue mosaics of later Palestine (such as Hammat Tiberias), it seems that Jewish women, like other women of the region, wore a separate veil or shawl over their heads.

On Roman coins from the latter part of the first century, issued after the Judaean revolt was quashed by the Romans, the figure of ‘Judaea’, is represented as a captive woman sitting weeping under a palm tree [fig. 25]. She is sometimes shown with a Roman soldier towering over her, with the intimation of rape; sometimes she is on her own, and sometimes she is with a captive Judaean man, with his hands bound.

This is the closest we get to an image of Judaean woman from the first century.

It is likely that she is depicted as an elite woman, however, with a large mantle.

But she is dishevelled: her mantle is dislodged and hanging loose, exposing her arms, legs and body. This image is meant to show Roman victory over the rich palm and balsam groves of the land.

In considering all this, we can get to an idea of a typical, ordinary Jewish woman of the time.2 There is otherwise no clue about Mary Magdalene that would make her distinctive. While her features may be blurry, we can imagine her in line with what we know [fig. 26].

Visualising the real Mary Magdalene

1 See Taylor 2018, p. 160-161.

2 Taylor 2021, p. 257-278

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ary Magdalene is often depicted with splendid, large jars of M ointment. However, special oils and salves were usually kept in smaller pots, because they were very costly and only held in small amounts. These three date from centuries before and after Christ. (Leiden, Rijksmuseum voor Oudheden, F 2017/8.309; I 1913/1.16; NS 700).

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oins provide a glimpse of the way C women were portrayed in the first century. This is a Roman sestertius.

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he author’s T conclusions led her to this depiction of a woman from the days of Mary Magdalene. Joan Taylor, 2020.

Frank G. Bosman

An amazing story Mary of Magdala in the Roman Catholic tradition

Mary of Magdala, better known by her Latin name as Maria Magdalena, is one of the most fascinating figures in the Christian tradition. Apostle of the apostles, penitent sinner, mystic, wife of Jesus, mother of his child, favoured pupil, power woman avant la lettre, the Holy Grail - she has had these and many other titles in the past two millennia, and that for someone who left barely a trace in the four canonical gospels. Yet she has been canonised by the Roman Catholic Church, and her legendary last resting place, Vézelay in France, on the road to Santiago de Compostella, is visited by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and tourists each year.

Mk Mt Lk Jh Various locations Support group Mary of Magdala Seven demons Reformed prostitute

15,41 27,55 23,49 8,1–3 (16,9–11) 8,1–3 8,1–11

Bethany anointing Woman Female sinner Mary (sister)

14,3–9 26,6–13 7,36–50 12,1–8

Around Easter Crucifixion Entombment Resurrection

15,4 27,56 23,49 19,25 15,47 27,61 16,1 28,1 23,55 20,1–18

Table 01

An amazing story

Mary of Magdala in the New Testament The story of Mary of Magdala begins in the four canonical gospels, but before diving into them we must make a brief detour to 14 September 591. It was then that Pope Gregory the Great [fig. 27], a great authority when he was alive but even more so after his death, clarified once and for all in his 23rd sermon the Roman Catholic Church’s teaching about this remarkable woman.

‘She whom Luke calls the sinful woman, whom John calls Mary, we believe to be the Mary from whom seven devils were ejected according to Mark. What did those seven devils signify, if not all the vices? It is clear, brothers and sisters, that the woman previously used the ointment to perfume her flesh in forbidden acts.’

Here Gregory was amalgamating several New Testament figures, both named and anonymous, to create the single figure of Mary of Magdala. Due to his authority, this image of Mary has been firmly enshrined in official Church doctrine and public belief right down to the present day. Nevertheless, all four evangelists paint a picture of Mary of Magdala, witness to Jesus’s Crucifixion and Resurrection, as the embodiment of (sexual) sinfulness, demonic possession and subsequent deep sorrow and remorse.

If we want to understand what is going on we need to summarise all those New Testament stories. To start at the end, they are stories that are traditionally attached to Mary of Magdala (see Table 01). This is Mary of Magdala’s primary narrative role at the end of the four gospels: her witness to the Crucifixion, Descent from the Cross, Entombment and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth.

Mary of Magdala plays a special part in those events. The four evangelists differ in the names they give the women they identify, but they are unanimous in naming the woman from Magdala as the witness to Jesus’s final hours and his Resurrection. Mary of Magdala and often the other women present are the first witnesses of the Resurrection.

They are sent by a heavenly messenger to the male apostles to tell them to start spreading the good news [fig. 28]. In Matthew it is Jesus himself who appears to the women as they are on their way to the apostles.

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rancisco de Zurbarán, F Gregory the Great, 1626– 1627. (Seville, Museo de Bellas Artes, CE0171P).

Mary Magdalene is transported up to heavenly spheres

by angels at the seven canonical hours of the day. Albrecht Dürer, The Ecstasy of Mary Magdalene, 1504–1505.

(Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, RP-P-OB-1460).

his painting combines two bibT lical stories. At the bottom Mary Magdalene is washing Christ’s feet, at the top Jesus is raising Lazarus from the dead. Germany, early sixteenth century. (Antwerp, The Phoebus Foundation).

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Mary Magdalene seems to be in a state of ecstasy. Is this the moment the demons were expelled from her?

The Holy Virgin Mary Magdalene, 1699. (Zwolle, Museum De Fundatie, 0000002299).

he biographies of Mary Magdalene and Mary of Egypt were merged into one. Here both saints T stand beside the crucified Jesus as what is known as the fount of mercy. Fons pietatis, 1460–1470.

(Avignon, Musée du Petit Palais, 369).

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errit de Wet, Angels Addressing the Three Women at Christ’s Open Tomb, 1655–1664.

G (Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent, BMH s121).

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his print by Lucas van Leyden is called The Worldly Life of Mary Magdalene, 1519. It underlines how T luxuriously and licentiously Mary Magdalene lived before her conversion. She is walking hand in hand with a man and is surrounded by amorous couples. To the right of the mountain is a foretaste of her life after she turned over a new leaf. Four angels are transporting her up to Heaven. (Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, RP-P-OB-1706).

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nknown (AmsterU dam), Orphrey with St Mary Magdalene, 1520-1529. (Utrecht, Museum Catharijneconvent, ABM t2107e).

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everse of a tabletka for July. Third saint in the third row: 22 July, Mary Magdalene. Russia, Kostroma, first half R eighteenth century. (Huizen, Tóth Ikonen).

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The early Christian and Byzantine image of Mary of Magdala

Désirée Krikhaar

Mary of Magdala –Mary Magdalene Image of a saint between East and West

‘By keeping His commandments and laws, holy Mary Magdalene, you followed Christ, Who for our sake was born of the Virgin, and in celebrating your most holy memory today, we praise you in faith and honour you in love.’

This Troparion (short hymn) is sung on 22 July, the feast of Mary of Magdala [fig. 10.1]. She is also one of the saints to whom an Akathist hymn is sung in her honour in the Orthodox Church.1 Every other couplet closes with praise for Mary of Magdala as the holy myrrh-bearer and first proclaimer of the Resurrection.2 Her special position is stressed no fewer than thirteen times in similar terms. Profuse praise is lavished on her for her actions at Christ’s Crucifixion, Entombment and Resurrection. The emphasis in the Akathist hymn is on her priceless loyalty during Christ’s life and Passion.

There is a brief mention of the demonic possession from which Christ released her. This woman was the first to see the risen Christ, and was allowed to bear the great news to the apostles. She stood at the cradle of the Christianity as apostle of the apostles.

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The great importance accorded to Mary of Magdala can be seen from Matthew’s gospel (28:1), who mentions two women as witnesses of the Resurrection: Mary Magdalene and ‘the other Mary.’

A mosaic in the Passion and Resurrection cycle in the Sant’Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, which became part of the Byzantine Empire in 540, shows two women at the empty tomb [fig. 10.2].

They want to embalm Christ on Easter morning, but He has risen from the dead. This gospel enables them to be identified as the Mother of God in a Byzantine imperial purple gown and Mary of Magdala in a gold cloak.

The Syrian Rabula codex also shows two myrrh-bearers at the tomb [fig.

10.3]. The woman with the halo is the Mother of God, and the woman behind her is probably Mary of Magdala. The same women kneel before the risen Christ, who has appeared to them and is giving a blessing. The scene above shows the Mother of God and the young apostle John standing to the left of the three crosses of Christ and the two thieves, with three mourning women to the right. In the two scenes below, the woman at the head of the group on the right can be identified as Mary of Magdala, for her clothing, including the fringes on her cloak, is identical to that of the woman at bottom left in the scene above. The two depictions are representative of the early Byzantine iconography of Mary of Magdala.

Mary of Magdala – Mary Magdalene

Legends of Mary of Magdala in the Byzantine tradition Starting in the tenth century there is a brief life of Mary of Magdala in various Byzantine Synaxaria and Menologia (monthly calendars with feast days and lives of the saints) that supplement the canonical and apocryphal writings. It is described on 22 July in the Synaxarion of Constantinople that Mary, possessed by seven devils, fled to the Syrian mountains, was cured by Christ and became his disciple. After his Ascension, she accompanied the Mother of God and the apostle John to Ephesus, where she died and was buried in the Grotto of the Seven Sleepers. The bishop, hagiographer and historian Gregory of Tours (d. 594) had been spreading that story in the West since the end of the sixth century.

A historical event was added to the Menologion of Emperor Basil II Bulgaroktonos (reigned 976-1025),3 relating that in the days of the Byzantine Emperor Leo VI (reigned 886-912) the relics of Mary of Magdala were transferred to the Lazarus monastery in Constantinople, where they were placed beside the relics of St Lazarus, first Bishop of Cyprus, which had been lying there since 898. Lazarus’s sister was also called Mary, and it is not inconceivable that Mary of Magdala’s relics in the Lazarus church were associated with his sister Mary of Bethany and that the two Marys were later fused into one.

Strikingly, in fact, Mary of Magdala’s relics were not placed in a church dedicated to her.4

East and West in a single image

The crusaders When the crusaders captured and plundered the city of Constantinople in 1204, sent the Byzantine emperor into exile and founded a Latin empire, a ‘new’ Mary of Magdala entered the picture, now often referred to as Mary Magdalene. The Catholic crusaders were familiar with legends and sermons about the penitent sinner Mary Magdalene, and to the followers of Western mendicant orders she was the supreme example of a sinner who had repented.

Those orders also found their way to Constantinople, and expressed an interest in the relics of Mary of Magdala.

The crusaders supposedly translated them to the Basilica of St John Lateran in Rome. However, that theft was vigorously denied by the Byzantine historian Xanthopoulos. After the Byzantine emperor’s return to Constantinople in 1261, pilgrims were still coming to the Lazarus monastery to venerate the relics of Mary of Magdala.5 The last word has not yet been said about those relics. It is undeniable that there was an exchange of legends and traditions between Byzantium and the West. The Byzantine empire always had contacts and trading relations with Western European regions, such as Ravenna, Apulia and Venice, Constantinople’s sister city. Orthodox and Catholic churchgoers met each other.

Western patrons commissioned Byzantine-trained artists to make manuscripts and devotional images of their deeply venerated and beloved saints. It is no coincidence that the first depictions of St Francis (d. 1226) appeared immediately after his canonisation in 1228 on the walls of the Theotokos Kyriotissa Church(now the Kalenderhane Mosque) used by the Latins in Constantinople (modern Istanbul).6

Mary of Magdala – Mary Magdalene

In early Christian times gospel texts provided the guidelines for both the veneration and iconography of Mary of Magdala, but now, as is the case with many saints, her legends became more detailed and glorious. The canonical images of the loyal female follower of Christ and the first witness of his Resurrection became mixed up with the Western ‘composed’ and more accentuated sinner who anointed Christ’s feet, and with Lazarus’s sister.

One example of such a composite and reciprocal iconography is the panel in which Mary Magdalene is flanked by eight scenes of events from her life that illustrate her penitence, faith and redemption [fig. 67]. It is by an anonymous painter from Florence who followed Byzantine models of vita icons from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries.7 The two-dimensional portrayal of figures against a gold background with flat architecture and an abstract landscape is typical of the genre. The areas of colour in the clothing are fairly monotone, and the draperies are reinforced with dark lines.

The first three scenes are based on canonical texts. A woman is anointing Christ’s feet and drying them with her hair, which can be seen beneath her headscarf. The composition is iconographically comparable to the Byzantine variant of the Last Supper, in which Christ is seated beside the apostles behind the laden table. Next, the raising of Lazarus expands the image from early Christendom. Christ giving a blessing stands with the apostle Peter facing Lazarus, who is being freed from his grave clothes by bystanders. One man is pinching his nose because of the stench. Mary and Martha, Lazarus’s sisters, are missing. Christ with a cruciform nimbus is giving the blessing and is wearing the prescribed red and blue attire and is holding a white scroll in his left hand, the Logos.8 This is followed by Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene in the famous Noli me tangere scene. The expected announcement of the Resurrection to the apostles is missing, but is translated into the apocryphal preaching of Mary Magdalene. Holding her jar of ointment she is standing before a crowd of people, with the men at the back and the women seated in the foreground.

The Magdalene’s attire conforms to the Byzantine formula of a blue undergarment and a red cloak.

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he Women Bearing Myrrh at the Empty Tomb on Easter Morning.

T Mosaic, sixth century. (Ravenna, Sant’Apollinare Nuovo).

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Rabula-Codex: Crucifixion, Women at the Tomb, and Christ Appearing to the Women, cod. Plut. I, 56, 13r. Syria, made and compiled in 586 in the monastery of John of Zagba.

(Florence, Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana).

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Magdalene Master, St Mary Magdalene with Eight Stories from her Life, 1280–1285.

(Florence, Galleria dell’Accademia, 1890 n.8466).

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riptych with Mary Magdalene covered in hair. Crete, first half sixteenth century. (Amsterdam, T Morsink Icon Gallery).

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Emmanuel Lambardos, The Crucifixion of Christ with Onlookers, Mourning Angels and Donors, 1613–1618. (Venice, San Giorgio dei Greci).

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Mourning women

Mary Magdalene covered in hair The following four scenes are taken from legends, possible derived from the Legenda aurea.9 However, there is one great difference between the four scenes at the top and the four below them. Just like the almost life-sized central image, Mary Magdalene is depicted as a sinful woman and penitent, covered with her long hair. That is also the way that ascetic hermits and desert saints are depicted: unkempt, haggard and the body hidden from view. This fits the legend that Mary Magdalene withdrew into the desert.

Seven times a day angels are bearing the hairy Mary Magdalene up as if in an ascension, so that she ‘can hear the singing of the heavenly hosts with her own ears.’ She is receiving Communion from an angel, who emerges from a sign of God (the fragment of a blue circle), which is the allusion to the ever-present God found in every Byzantine icon. The apostle Maximinus, to whom Mary Magdalene was entrusted according to the Legenda aurea, gives her the Last Communion, and then she dies. As in the icon of the Dormition of the Mother of God, Mary Magdalene lies on her deathbed with her hands folded, while priests take their leave of her. The bishops are wearing Western mitres.

The specific iconography of Mary Magdalene shrouded in hair did not really catch on in Byzantium, but it is found sporadically in regions ruled

by Venice, such as Crete, which were heavily influenced by Wester art. A sixteenth-century devotional triptych is a remarkable example of this [fig.

68]. Just as Mary of Magdala’s hair was hidden by her headscarf in the early Christian and Byzantine periods, and was completely covered with hair from the late thirteenth century on, there is also the intermediate form of Mary Magdalene with long locks. A display of hair is customary as a sign of mourning in the East, but a text by Xanthopoulos mentioned above goes much further.10 He describes a despairing woman at the foot of Christ’s Cross. She kisses his feet, mixes her tears with his blood, scratches her cheeks with her nails, and screams as she pulls her hair out from beneath her head-covering.

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Human emotion The time is ripe for emotion, which is missing in early iconographies. States of mind started becoming an important element in the thirteenth-century iconography of the Palaeologan Renaissance, which is named after the imperial dynasty that returned to Constantinople after the Latin occupation in 1261. As the term Renaissance suggests, this was a return to the aesthetics of classical antiquity. The human body was no longer concealed but was actually made visible beneath the clothing with the aid of accents in the drapery folds. Figures gain movement, and there is a cautious introduction of a sense of depth. Backgrounds are enlivened with Italianate buildings with verandas and views into inner gardens. In the distance there are landscapes with trees and rocky outcrops. In this way the Palaeologan Renaissance and the Western influences that partly originated through contacts with crusaders in Cyprus and Crete merged in Jerusalem and Venice in manuscripts, murals and icons. Those influences made themselves felt for centuries.

Kneeling in the early seventeenth-century Crucifixion icon in the Church of San Giorgio dei Grei (St George of the Greek community) in Venice are two patrons in Western garb, as if seated in adoration in a Flemish altarpiece [fig. 69]. The Crucifixion is depicted with high pathos, and Mary Magdalene with her hair hanging loose is supporting the swooning Mother of God. That it is not one of the other two women who is intended to be Mary Magdalene but the one with loose hair is due to her Western appearance. It is a kind of image that became increasingly common in Byzantine iconography.

In order to heighten the drama she is depicted in imitation of Wester iconography, kneeling beneath the Cross and clasping it [fig. 70].

The expressive woman with loose hair gesticulating wildly is also present at the descent from the Cross, Entombment and Lamentation. Her bright red cloak is one of the features that express the passion of Mary Magdalene. A more or less standard iconography of the Entombment and Lamentation evolved on Crete in the fifteenth century. The deeply distressed Mother of God takes Christ’s head in her hands in order to bid him a final farewell [fig. 71]. The other women hold their hands to their cheeks as a sign of mourning. Their hair hangs loose below their head-coverings. The most forlorn is Mary Magdalene, who expresses unutterable grief with her arms raised to the sky.

When the women with jars of ointment arrive at the tomb on Easter morning in order to embalm Christ’s body, they find it empty. One of them is wearing bright red clothes: Mary Magdalene [fig. 72]. Yet what is unusual is that her name is almost never written beside her figure, as was stipulated for every feast day and saint in the Byzantine world.

One important visual tradition in the West is that of Mary Magdalene as a sumptuously dressed woman of the world holding a jar of ointment. That form of portrayal is found only sporadically in the Eastern Christian iconography, as is the penitent Magdalene with a jar of ointment [fig. 73]. An example of the latter was painted by the Cretan icon painter Konstantinos Tzanes after an engraving by the Fleming Jan Sadeler [fig. 74]. All in all this is barely an icon at all. It is more a picture of the Western penitent sinner with loose hair in a rocky Byzantine landscape.

Mary of Magdala – Mary Magdalene

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I talo-Cretan, Ioanes Mary Scupula, Otranto (attributed to), Mary Magdalene Kneeling at the Foot of the Cross, the Mother of God Swooning below the Cross, first half sixteenth century.

(Amsterdam, Morsink Icon Gallery).

ntombment of Christ, Crete, second half fifteenth century.

E (Germany, private collection).

72

he Women Bearing Myrrh at T the Empty Tomb, Russia, c. 1600.

(Netherlands, private collection).

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74

73

he Mother of God with the Child and John the Baptist, T Flanked by Four Female Saints: Lucy, Catherine, Mary Magdalene and Martha the Dragon-Slayer.

Veneto-Cretan, first half sixteenth century.

(Amsterdam, Morsink Icon Gallery).

75

St Mary Magdalene with a Red Egg. 2020.

onstantinos Tzanes after an engraving K

by J. Sadeler, Mary Magdalene with her Jar of Ointment at the Empty Tomb, third quarter seventeenth century. (Venice, Museo dell’Istituto Ellenico).

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