Mary Magdalene, Iconographic Studies from the Middle Ages to the Baroque

Mary Magdalene, Iconographic Studies from the Middle Ages to the Baroque examines the iconographic inventions in Magdalene imagery and the contextual factors that shaped her representation in visual art from the fourteenth to the seventeenth centuries. Unique to other saints in the medieval lexicon, images of Mary Magdalene were altered over time to satisfy the changing needs of her patrons as well as her audience. By shedding light on the relationship between the Magdalene and her patrons, both corporate and private, as well as the religious institutions and regions where her imagery is found, this anthology reveals the flexibility of the Magdalene’s character in art and, in essence, the reinvention of her iconography from one generation to the next.

Michelle A. Erhardt, Ph.D (2004), Christopher Newport University, is Associate Professor of Medieval and Renaissance Art History and Chair of the Department of Fine Art and Art History. She has published on Franciscan art in fourteenth-century Italy, Magdalene imagery and the role of female saints in medieval and Renaissance art, particularly within a Franciscan context.

Amy M. Morris, Ph.D. (2006), University of Nebraska at Omaha, is Assistant Professor of Early Modern Art History. She has published on Lucas Moser’s Saint Magdalene Altarpiece and on other topics current in the field of Northern Renaissance art, including indulgence altarpieces, pilgrimage, Magdalene iconography, and artistic self-awareness.

Contributors include: Joanne Anderson, Barbara Baert, Andrea Begel, Elizabeth Carroll Consavari, Bobbi Dykema, Jane Eade, Michelle Erhardt, Rachel Geschwind, Barbara Johnston, Patrick Hunt, Annette LeZotte, Amy Morris, Margaret Morse, Michelle Moseley-Christian, Vibeke Olson, and Lisa Rafanelli, with a preface by Susan Haskins.