El Greco’s work is unmistakable, and it is often religious, such as this very famous painting of St. Peter as a penitent……
Speaking of persons that Christian art has portrayed as a penitent, there are three pictures of Mary Magdalene in this small museum. All such pictures are based on the false assumption that Mary Magdalene was the same woman as the anonymous sinner woman of Lk. 7.36-50 or the equally anonymous woman caught in adultery in Jn. 7.53-8.11. In fact Mary Magdalene’s problem was a quite different one— demon possession (Lk. 8.1-3).
Here is Caroselli’s image of Mary as a penitent….
Here is an allegorical painting about Mary Magadalene, which again assumes she committed sexual sins in her past….
Here is Mary Magdalene striking a rather Jerome-like pose, in a painting by Murillo, a 17th century Spanish artist.
Last but not least we have an interesting depiction of the brothers of Joseph selling him off, so it is about those who ought to have been penitents….
This was painted in the 17th century by a painter named Francesco Maffei.
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