Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene is depicted as a repentant sinner reading a book of Holy Scripture that is supported on a skull, a symbol of mortality. This figure and its pendant, John the Baptist (see 2022.43.2), are based on two famous paintings by the Italian artist Pompeo Batoni (1708-1787) completed around 1742 that were in the royal collection in Dresden, Germany, near the Meissen porcelain manufactory. There the ceramic artist translated the images into extraordinary three-dimensional forms with skillfully modeled details especially in the rendering of the hair and drapery.