Magdalene with Two Flames

Magdalene with Two Flames or The Penitent Magdalene is an undated work created c.1640 by the French painter Georges de La Tour. In 1978 Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman gave it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it still hangs. Both the candle and the human skull she is holding are metaphors for the fragility of life and her discarded jewellery for the meaningless value of worldly possessions and for her atonement. The work is one of several by the artist featuring a candlelit Mary Magdalene.

Magdalene with Two Flames

Magdalene with Two Flames or The Penitent Magdalene is an undated work created c.1640 by the French painter Georges de La Tour. In 1978 Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman gave it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it still hangs. Both the candle and the human skull she is holding are metaphors for the fragility of life and her discarded jewellery for the meaningless value of worldly possessions and for her atonement. The work is one of several by the artist featuring a candlelit Mary Magdalene.