Mary Magdalen standing on clouds, being transported to heaven by angels
1570–1615
Medium
Engraving
Dimensions
Sheet: 11 1/8 × 7 15/16 in. (28.2 × 20.1 cm)
Classification
Prints
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1951
Accession Number
51.501.3771
Tags
About this artwork
This devotional engraving by Cherubino Alberti captures the miraculous transportation of Mary Magdalene to heaven, a popular subject in Counter-Reformation religious art that emphasized mystical experiences and saintly intercession. Active from 1570 to 1615, Alberti worked in Rome during a period when the Catholic Church, responding to Protestant challenges, promoted religious imagery that inspired devotion and communicated orthodox doctrine. According to medieval legend, Mary Magdalene spent he...
About the Artist
Cherubino Alberti (Zaccaria Mattia) · 1553–1615
Cherubino Alberti (1553–1615), also known by his birth name Zaccaria Mattia, was an Italian engraver and painter active in Rome during the late Renaissance and early Baroque periods. Born in Borgo San Sepolcro in Tuscany, he came from an artistically inclined family and received training that equipped him for work in both painting and the reproductive graphic arts. It was as a printmaker, however,...