Donatello: An Artist of Vision and Influence

Donatello - St. Mary Magdalene - c. 1457 - Polychrome wood, height 188 cm - Museo dell'Opera del Duomo, FlorenceDonato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi (ca. 1386-1466) was the master of sculpture in marble, wood and bronze during the Early Italian Renaissance. Universally known as Donatello, “he broke ground by introducing new aesthetics in line with the time's flourishing move toward Humanism - a movement that emphasized a departure from medieval scholasticism and favored deep immersion into the humanities, resulting in art that no longer focused solely on the secular realm of religion but explored man's place in the natural world. Donatello's signature lifelike and highly emotional works would place him as one of the most influential artists in 15th century Italy.”

During the Middle Ages and beyond, the person of Mary Magdalene was conflated in western tradition with Mary of Bethany and the unnamed "sinful woman" who anoints Jesus's feet in Luke 7:36-50. This led to a widespread but inaccurate belief that she was a repentant prostitute or promiscuous woman. This identification of Mary Magdalene was a major controversy in the years leading up to the Reformation and some Protestant leaders rejected it. During the Counter-Reformation, the Catholic Church used Mary Magdalene as a symbol of penance.

In 1969, the identification of Mary Magdalene with Mary of Bethany and the "sinful woman" was removed from the General Roman Calendar, but the view of her as a former prostitute has persisted in popular culture. It certainly was the belief held during Donatello’s time.

In the tradition known to the artist, for thirty years Mary fasted, living as a hermit in the wilderness of southern France. Once famed for her beauty, by the end she was wrapped only in her long hair. She was exemplary of the renunciation of a sinful life, exchanging it for repentance, pious remorse and prayer.

It is widely accepted among secular historians that, like Jesus, Mary Magdalene was a real historical figure. Nonetheless, very little is known about her life. She left behind no writings of her own, nor were any works later forged under her name, as was common for the other disciples. She is never mentioned in any of the Pauline epistles or in any of the general epistles. The earliest and most reliable sources about her life are the three Synoptic Gospels of Mark, Matthew, and Luke, which were all written during the first century CE.