Italian school, 18th century. "Mary Magdalene". Oil on canvas. Relined. Needs restoration. It presents lack of polychromy in all the pictorial surface. Measurements: 78 x 63 cm; 95 x 79 cm (frame). Mary Magdalene was a biblical figure very much represented in the Baroque period, especially in the Italian painting of more sensualist roots. Here, a strong chiaroscuro models the saint's soft features and supple flesh tones. With her left hand, the woman with long, flowing hair prepares to remove an earring, a gesture symbolic of the process of detachment from material goods. While Eastern Christianity honours Mary Magdalene in particular for her closeness to Jesus, considering her "equal to the apostles", in the West the idea developed, based on her identification with other women in the Gospels, that before meeting Jesus she had been a prostitute. Hence the later legend that she spent the rest of her life as a penitent in the desert, mortifying her flesh. In art, she was most often depicted in this way, especially in the 17th century, a time when Catholic societies were particularly fascinated by the lives of mystics and saints who lived in solitude in the wilderness, dedicated to prayer and penance. The theme of the Magdalen also offered the possibility of depicting a beautiful woman showing parts of the anatomy then considered taboo, such as the feet or the breast, but respecting decorum in that she is mortified flesh expressing repentance for her past sins.