The Penitent Magdalen (Painting)

Artist/Maker: after Luca Giordano (Naples, 1634–1705)

Created: 2026, after a ca. 1665 original

Origin/Purchase: Bridgewater, Virginia 

Materials: ink on canvas, wood, gilding

Dimensions: Framed: H: 44 1/16” x W: 35 ¼” x D: 2”

Credit Line: Luca Giordano, Penitent Magdalen, ca. 1665, oil, H: 152.7cm x W: 124.8cm, (P001105). Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado. ©Photographic Archive Museo Nacional del Prado

Since 1936, the Thomas Jefferson Foundation displayed a version of Penitent Magdalen that belonged to James Madison. A closer reading of Jefferson’s Catalogue of Paintings &c. at Monticello, led curators to a painting that better matches his description and attribution, and the Foundation has commissioned a reproduction of the work for display where Jefferson originally hung it. 

Who was Mary Magdalene?

In the Judeo-Christian tradition, Mary Magdalene was a devoted follower of Jesus who witnessed the crucifixion and resurrection. In the sixth-century, a pope described her as a repentant prostitute—a claim with no historical basis that nonetheless became the dominant story about her in the western Christian church. 

As one of the most frequently depicted figures in Christian art, Mary Magdalene has inspired centuries of stories, paintings, sculptures, and poems, often as a symbol of redemption and new beginnings. The “penitent” Magdalen was a popular way of portraying her: beautiful, nearly nude or in tattered clothing, her body covered by her hair, showing remorse for her past, and living in isolation as a hermit. 

Thomas Jefferson’s Penitent Magdalen 

Thomas Jefferson purchased his copy of Penitent Magdalen in Paris in February 1785, at the sale of the art collection of Dupille de Saint-Séverin. The surviving Saint-Séverin auction catalogue describes the painting in detail as a seated woman with her knees tucked beneath her, disheveled hair, wearing a hair shirt, with a book in one hand and a skull under the other. The catalogue attributed the work to Jusepe de Ribera—often called by the nickname “Spagnolotto”—and recorded its dimensions.¹

Jefferson added additional details about the painting’s composition in his own Catalogue of Paintings &c. at Monticello (no. 35), a list of the art installed in Monticello’s public rooms.² He noted that Mary Magdalen had the book in her right hand, with her left hand resting on the skull, and described the painting as a copy after Ribera’s original.

Jefferson’s painting was exhibited at the Boston Athenaeum in 1828 and offered for sale at the Harding Gallery in Boston in 1833. Jefferson’s Penitent Magdalen has never been located. 

Together, the descriptions of the Penitent Magdalen from the Saint-Séverin auction catalogue and Jefferson’s own inventory led curators to Luca Giordano’s interpretation of Mary Magdalen at the Prado.³ Giordano’s work had previously been attributed to Ribera whose composition matches these period accounts. 

James Madison’s Penitent Magdalen

In 1936, the Foundation received a Penitent Magdalen painting as a bequest from James Madison’s descendants. Ongoing research has since confirmed that the painting that was on display Monticello since the 1930’s belonged to James Madison at Montpelier and did not have a connection to Jefferson. The Thomas Jefferson Foundation has deaccessioned the painting and transferred it to the Montpelier Foundation.

 - Emilie Johnson, 8/2026