Caravaggio, Mary Magdalen in Ecstasy, 1606
The Mary Magdalene is a stark image of exile, of anguish, and guilt … Caravaggio had killed a man, and come close to death himself, and the first instinct of a Catholic was to make an act of contrition. His Magdalene is the sinner who spent many years in solitary penitence; she conveys the sense of desolation and abandonment that is part of the mystical experience; and the divine light creates a dazzling darkness. — Helen Langdon
