The Ecstasy of the Magdalen

Giulio Cesare Procaccini

National Gallery of Art

A kneeling woman and two nude, winged, child-like angels supporting her all look up at three angels on a cloud bank in this vertical painting. The woman and her attendants in the lower right corner take up half the composition, which is divided from the second group by a diagonal line of charcoal-gray clouds. All the people have pale skin with gray-tinged shadows and pink cheeks. The woman’s face is tipped up, her mouth open. Long, copper-red curls frame her face and fall down her back. An ochre-yellow robe falls off her shoulders to expose her breasts, and her legs are covered by a white shift. She holds both hands palm up. One arm drapes across the shoulders of an angel who hugs her waist. The other angel leans against the woman’s lap. These two and the other three angels all have gold or strawberry-blond curly hair and silvery gray or lavender-purple wings. In the clouds, one angel plays a violin, and another gestures with the first two fingers raised. Those two wear robes in laurel green, crimson red, or white. Another nude child-like angel sits on the clouds along the left edge of the painting, and a winged baby head is below. The groups are lit dramatically from the front and slightly to our left, so the setting is deep in shadow.