Saint Mary Magdalen

Simon Vouet's Saint Mary Magdalen (c. 1630) dates from after his return to Paris from fifteen years in Italy, where he had absorbed both Caravaggist naturalism and the classicizing Baroque style of Bologna. Vouet was recalled to France by Louis XIII in 1627 to serve as Premier Peintre du Roi, and he effectively established the French Baroque style, training the next generation of French painters including Le Brun, Le Sueur, and Mignard. This Magdalen — the repentant sinner gazing heavenward — became one of the most popular devotional subjects of the Counter-Reformation.

Vouet's oil on panel combines the dramatic lighting of his Italian Caravaggist phase with the more idealized figure type and softer modeling he developed after returning to France, creating the elegant synthesis that defined early French Baroque painting.