What penance looks like.
Posted by Terry Nelson on Jul 22nd, 2008
St. Mary Magdalen, by Donatello.
Today is her feast day. The 15th century sculpture for the Baptistry of the Duomo in Florence looks to be rather contemporary in style, don’t you think?
July 22nd, 2008 at 6:53 am
*That’s* from the 15th century?!
July 22nd, 2008 at 12:41 pm
Dear Mr.Terry , Forget about all of these thought provoking blogs of yours, and all of that painful penance stuff. Never you mind about those religious brain teasers that you are so fond of anymore,(your like a word puzzle geek only religious. Me too ,but I am at a way lower level).
I found a web site that can sell you a ticket to heaven !!
Easy breezy!!!
I should buy one to send to my State abortion provider “Dr.Tiller” with a ticket to hell. Do you think that would shake him up in a positive way ?
http://www.reserveaspotinhell.com/
http://www.reserveaspotinheaven.com/
This is taken way too lightly.This is serious stuff.
July 22nd, 2008 at 3:55 pm
What’d Mary Magdalene ever do to you, eh? You are aware that her being a prostitute was an invention by a pope, centuries later, yes ?
July 22nd, 2008 at 4:15 pm
She looks emaciated and leprous. Not at all a fitting image of such a lady, I shouldn’t think.
July 22nd, 2008 at 8:24 pm
Yes Gerald, I already know all about the stuff you are just discovering for yourself.
July 22nd, 2008 at 10:00 pm
Thx but I’ve known that for years.
Hell is a place with garish interior decoration, kitschy knick knacks, too high temperature and unpleasant roommates, for eternity. At least that’s how Sartre depicted it.
Of course, some people’s heaven might be other people’s hell.
July 22nd, 2008 at 11:45 pm
+JMJ+
Artists–Catholic artists especially–understand that penance needs a face. The mysterious unfolding of tradition over time has made St. Mary Magdalen that face. What her own face looks like depends on the individual artist, but both Donatallo and Mel Gibson are clearly working in the same tradition.
I suspect that Pope St. Gregory’s view of St. Mary Magdalen was, far from a novelty, the reflectiion of a Catholic sensibility older than either his reign or his own life. That’s why it has proven so popular and enduring. There is no reason why the historical Mary Magdalen cannot exist alongside the emblematic Mary Magdalen.
July 23rd, 2008 at 8:54 am
I like it. Donatello wanted to show her in her latter years after hard fasting. He succeeded.
July 23rd, 2008 at 1:22 pm
like you guys could live in a cave and pull of diva glamour? Puh-lease. She was a devout prayerful fasting penitant who throw away vanity for our Lord.
It is the perfect respresentation of a true penitant if you ask me, Thom.
July 24th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Sorry, I have mixed feelings on this. Like anybody cares. . .
I think Donetello was a troubled soul, like many of us.