The Temptation of the Magdalene
Jacob Jordaens (Flemish, 1593-1678)
c. 1616
- Medium
- Oil on panel
- Classification
- Painting
- Dimensions
- 126.2 × 96.8 cm (49 11/16 × 38 1/4 in.); Framed: 155.6 × 130.2 × 12.7 cm (61 1/4 × 51 1/4 × 5 in.)
- Culture
- Flanders
- Museum
- Art Institute of Chicago, Painting and Sculpture of Europe
- Credit line
- Charles H. and Mary F. S. Worcester Collection; anonymous gift in honor of Kate and Morris Kaplan
- Rights
- Public domain (CC0), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Teens profiles and older: its subject is for older viewers (war, death, the Passion, drink or the like). How works are placed
View at the Art Institute of Chicago
About this work
In this half-length biblical painting, an aged woman offering tempting jewels—possibly the proprietor of a brothel—and an angel bestowing spiritual guidance battle for the soul of Mary Magdalene. A ghoulish demon emerges from the shadows in the background with a fistful of snakes, a menacing symbol of evil. Jacob Jordaens had already developed his own rich realism, with earthy figures and naturalistic shadows, by the time he executed this early work, probably for an upper-class home in his native Antwerp.
Description © Art Institute of Chicago, CC BY 4.0
