Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene (Hebrew: מרים המגדלית‎, original Greek: Μαρία ἡ Μαγδαληνή), or Mary of Magdala and sometimes The Magdalene, is a figure in Christianity. Mary Magdalene travelled with Jesus as one of his followers. She is said to have witnessed Jesus' crucifixion and resurrection. Within the four Gospels she is named at least 12 times, more than most of the apostles. During the Middle Ages she developed a reputation in Western Christianity as being a repentant prostitute or loose woman. This is not supported by the canonical gospels.

The Gospel of Luke says seven demons had gone out of her, and the longer ending of Mark says Jesus had cast seven demons out of her. She is most prominent in the narrative of the crucifixion of Jesus, at which she was present. She was also present two days later, immediately following the sabbath, when, according to all four canonical Gospels, she was either alone or as a member of a group of women the first to testify to the resurrection of Jesus.John 20 and Mark 16:9 specifically name her as the first person to see Jesus after his resurrection.

Mary Magdalene (Maeterlinck play)

Mary Magdalene is a 1910 tragic play by Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck. It inspired a symphonic work by Kosaku Yamada.

The play had its premiere in an English translation performed at New York City's The New Theatre. That was also the first United States performance of any Maeterlinck play.

Based on the Biblical story of Mary Magdalene, the plot of the three-act play was summarized as follows by the New York Times in 1910 as follows:

The Magdalene is a courtesan, who in the course of the drama becomes ennobled spiritually by contact with the Nazarene [Jesus]. Her tempter and lover, Lucius Verus, the Roman General, labors under the delusion that the Nazarene is his rival, so when the woman begs Verus to save Jesus from crucifixion, he names as his price the Magdalene's complete surrender to him. The glory of her reformation has been too complete to permit her to accede to Verus wishes, and Mary vainly turns to those who have been cured by the Nazarene and urges them to save Him, but they shrink from her in cowardice.

Mary Magdalene (1914 film)

Mary Magdalene is a 1914 silent film that is loosely based on the 1910, three-act play of the same name by Belgian playwright Maurice Maeterlinck.

Plot

The story takes place in Capernaum and Jerusalem during the two years leading up to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and follows the lives of Judas Iscariot (Arthur Maude) and Mary Magdalene (Constance Crawley), who indulge in their own selfish pursuits and care little about the plights of others. But when Mary hears Jesus preach an outdoor sermon, she learns the power of Christ's love and abandons her reckless ways to become one of his most ardent followers.

Production

Charles Urban, the Anglo-British promoter of the Kinemacolor process of making color motion pictures, acquired world-wide rights to Maurice Maeterlinck's play Mary Magdalene with plans to produce a color film. Maeterlinck's mistress Georgette Leblanc, who had appeared in the title role of the original production of play, was retained to star in the movie. Although Urban planned an Autumn 1913 release in London, and actual filming did take place in Europe, a final product never reached the screen. Instead, Aubrey Kennedy of Kennedy Features in Los Angeles, California, released his own version of Mary Magdalene in February 1914 that was filmed at cameraman James Crosby's J.A.C. Studio near downtown Los Angeles.

Penitent Magdalene (Donatello)

The Penitent Magdalene is a wooden sculpture of Mary Magdalene by the Italian Renaissance sculptor Donatello, created around 1453-1455. The sculpture was probably commissioned for the Baptistery of Florence. The piece was received with astonishment for its unprecedented realism. It is currently housed in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence.

The wood used by Donatello is that of White poplar.

Iconography

Though the "Penitent Magdalene" was the usual depiction for the many single figures of Mary Magdalene in art, Donatello's gaunt, emaciated figure differs greatly from most depictions, which show a beautiful young woman in nearly perfect health. The Magdalene Penitent is famous for the detailed and very realistic carvings on the statue. Medieval hagiography in the Western church had conflated the figure of Mary Magdalene, already conflated with Mary of Bethany and the unnamed sinner in the Anointing of Jesus, with that of Saint Mary of Egypt. She was a popular figure in the Eastern church, who had been a prostitute before spending thirty years repenting in the desert. Donatello's depiction is similar to, and very probably influenced by, Eastern Orthodox icons of Mary of Egypt, which show a similar emaciated figure. He thus ignored the Western legends by which Mary was daily fed by angels in the desert.

Mary Magdalene (Sandys)

Mary Magdalene is a Pre-Raphaelite painting by Frederick Sandys. Mary Magdalene was the only character from the Bible that Sandys ever painted. Having sharp features reminiscent of Lizzie Siddal (though the model is unknown), Mary is depicted in front of a patterned forest-green damask. She holds an alabaster ointment cup, a traditional attribute which associates her with the anonymous sinful woman who anointed Jesus' feet in Luke 7:37. Like other Pre-Raphaelite painters, Frederick Sandys gave Magdalene a sensual look.

Dante Rossetti accused Sandys of plagiarism, because of the resemblance to his Mary Magdalene Leaving the House of Feasting, but when Rossetti came to paint Magdalene some twenty years later, it was his painting that resembled Sandys.Mary Magdalene was acquired in 1894 by Samuel Bancroft, the most important American collector of Pre-Raphaelite art, whose family donated his collection to the Delaware Art Museum in 1935. Bancroft bought it from Charles Fairfax Murray, an artist in the Pre-Raphaelite circle.

Mary Magdalene (disambiguation)

Mary Magdalene is a religious figure in Christianity.

Mary Magdalene may also refer to: