Penitent Magdalene

One of the great sculptures of the early Renaissance is Donatello’s Penitent Magdalene, a wooded sculpture that shows Mary Magdalene late in her life, wearing only her own long hair about her body; toothless, disheveled, wrinkled, emaciated, she still praises god and casts her sunken eyes to heaven to pray for forgiveness. To see this in its new setting is a powerful experience.