Magdalene with Two Flames

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Magdalene with Two Flames
Artist	Georges de La Tour
Year	c.1640
Type	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	133.4 cm × 102.2 cm (52.5 in × 40.2 in)
Location	Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City

Magdalene with Two Flames or The Penitent Magdalene is an undated oil-on-canvas painting created c.1640 by the French painter Georges de La Tour. In 1978 Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman gave it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, where it still hangs.^[1]

The painting depicts Mary Magdalene, a companion of Christ, who exchanged her previous worldly lifestyle for a life of penance and contemplation. She is shown, illuminated by a candle, sitting in a meditative pose in front of a mirror. The light from the candle and its reflection create a strong chiaroscuro effect, with the subject's brightly lit face and breast contrasting with the darkness of the rest of the composition.

Both the candle and the human skull she is holding are metaphors for the fragility of life and her discarded jewellery for the meaningless value of worldly possessions and for her atonement.

The work is one of several by the artist featuring a candlelit Mary Magdalene.

• Magdalene at a Mirror (de La Tour, c. 1635–1640)
• Magdalene with the Smoking Flame (de La Tour, 1640)

• Conisbee, Philip. “An Introduction to the Life and Art of Georges de La Tour,” in Philip Conisbee (ed.), Georges de La Tour and His World, exh. cat. Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art; Fort Worth, Kimbell Art Museum 1996, pp. 13–147.
• Judovitz, Dalia. Georges de La Tour and the Enigma of the Visible, New York, Fordham University Press, 2018. ISBN 0-82327-744-5; ISBN 9780823277445.

• The Penitent Magdalene

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