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The Penitent Magdalene (Magdalena Poenitens), from "The Large Landscapes"

ca. 1555–56
Not on view
The figure of Mary Magdalene, the reformed and repentant prostitute, occupies but a small portion of the composition in this image, which was printed after a design by Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Reclining under a lean-to of logs in the right foreground, the repentant saint is shielded from the grand alpine valley and mountainscape behind her. An aureole of light surrounds Mary in the sky above as she is taken to heaven by angels, as happened seven times a day during her thirty years of penance. This is one of a series of twelve prints known as the Large Landscapes, all of which reflect the deep impression the dramatic mountain vistas made on Bruegel as he traveled through the Alps on his return from Italy around 1554. Carried out primarily in etched lines that have the appearance of engraved ones, the unsigned Large Landscapes were executed by the brothers Joannes and Lucas van Doetecum and published by Hieronymus Cock through his Antwerp shop, At the Four Winds. The prints, which were among the most widely circulated and celebrated of Bruegel's images, allowed a large audience to become acquainted with his strikingly naturalistic and broad-eyed conception of landscape.

Artwork Details

Object Information
  • Title: The Penitent Magdalene (Magdalena Poenitens), from "The Large Landscapes"
  • Series/Portfolio: The Large Landscapes
  • Artist: Johannes van Doetecum I (Netherlandish, 1528/32–1605)
  • Artist: Lucas van Doetecum (Netherlandish, active 1554–72, died before 1589)
  • Artist: After Pieter Bruegel the Elder (Netherlandish, Breda (?) ca. 1525–1569 Brussels)
  • Publisher: Hieronymus Cock (Netherlandish, Antwerp ca. 1510–1570 Antwerp)
  • Date: ca. 1555–56
  • Medium: Etching
  • Dimensions: sheet: 12 11/16 x 16 7/8 in. (32.3 x 42.8 cm)
  • Classification: Prints
  • Credit Line: Harris Brisbane Dick Fund, 1926
  • Object Number: 26.72.14
  • Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

More Artwork

More Artwork
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Shed with Cottage, from The Small Landscapes, Johannes van Doetecum I Netherlandish, Etching; fourth state of four
Shed with Cottage, from The Small Landscapes
Multiple artists/makers
1559–61
Farm, from The Small Landscapes, Johannes van Doetecum I Netherlandish, Etching
Farm, from The Small Landscapes
Multiple artists/makers
1559–61
Country Village, archers in the foreground from Multifariarum casularum ruriumque lineamenta curiose ad vivum expressa, Johannes van Doetecum I Netherlandish, Etching; third state of three
Country Village, archers in the foreground from Multifariarum casularum ruriumque lineamenta curiose ad vivum expressa
Multiple artists/makers
1559–61
Country Village with Post Mill from Multifariarum casularum ruriumque lineamenta curiose ad vivum expressa, Johannes van Doetecum I Netherlandish, Etching; third state of three
Country Village with Post Mill from Multifariarum casularum ruriumque lineamenta curiose ad vivum expressa
Multiple artists/makers
1559–61
Village Street, hay stacked in front of a farm from Praediorum villarum et rusticarum casularum icones elenoantissimae ad vivum in apre deformatae, Johannes van Doetecum I Netherlandish, Etching; first state of three
Village Street, hay stacked in front of a farm from Praediorum villarum et rusticarum casularum icones elenoantissimae ad vivum in apre deformatae
Multiple artists/makers
ca. 1559–61

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