Titian, Penitent Magdalene, 1531 versionScholars like Heather Sexton Graham have addressed the probl
Titian, Penitent Magdalene, 1531 versionScholars like Heather Sexton Graham have addressed the problematics of fleshiness or sensuousness in religious images of female saints. In particular, Sexton Graham focuses on two versions of Titian’s Penitent Magdalen. She notes that some scholars have argued that the pleasure of viewing such a sensuous, lifelike image is counterproductive to its purpose as a devotional work, which is meant to evoke piety rather than pleasure (1). In Titian’s earlier image from 1531, Mary Magdalen is depicted in a dark landscape from the waist up, naked except for her long blonde hair, and looking lachrymosely upward (2). In the later image from 1565, she is clothed in a white garment with a striped shawl draped over her arm. However, the thin fabric appears about to slip off her body and a large part of her chest is still exposed. In both images she touches the bare skin of her breast - Titian’s mottled, fleshy rendering of which is described by Sexton Graham as “voluptuous… [and] glowing” (3).1. Heather Sexton Sexton Graham, “Renaissance Flesh and Woman’s Devotion: Titian’s Penitent Magdalen,” Comiatus: A Journal of Medieval and Renaissance Studies 39 (2008): 140.2. Sexton Graham, “Renaissance Flesh and Woman’s Devotion” 137.3. Sexton Graham, “Renaissance Flesh and Woman’s Devotion,” 137. -- source link
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