The Ecstasy of Mary Magdalene
Medium
woodcut
Classification
Department
Prints
Museum
Cleveland Museum of Art
Credit
Gift of Leonard C. Hanna Jr.
Accession Number
1941.42
Tags
male
About this artwork
Dürer’s woodcut of Mary Magdalene represents a popular subject in German art and is considered a schlechtes Holzwerk, a simple woodcut intended for a general audience. According to a medieval book of saints’ lives known as the Golden Legend, Mary Magdalene spent the last 30 years of her life as a hermit outside of Marseilles, France, where she was miraculously borne aloft to heaven seven times a day to hear the choir of angels. Considered a fallen woman in her early life, Mary earned redemption ...