Artemisia Gentileschi's Ecstatic Magdalene on View at Venice's Ducal Palace

Artemisia Gentileschi's 'Mary Magdalene in Ecstasy' has gone on display at the Ducal Palace in Venice as part of the 'Ospiti a Palazzo' series. The painting, from a private collection, is on long-term loan to the Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia and has been visible to the public since June 11. Gentileschi lived in Venice from 1626 to 1629, where she was celebrated by poets such as Antonino Collurafi. The Magdalene is depicted in a sensual, earthly manner, with symbols of penance—skull, candle, and ointment—relegated to the background, overshadowed by the Caravaggesque luminosity of her face and bare skin. Art historians believe the work was created before her Venetian sojourn and anticipated the 17th-century renewed interest in 'exemplary' women, portraying the saint not only as penitent but as a woman of voluptuous beauty and strong spirituality.