Today marks the feast day for St. Mary Magdalene, the Apostle to the Apostles. Of all the apostles, Mary Magdalene has undoubtedly been the most fetishized and demonized. Yet she has also been honoured throughout church history as the first witness to Christ’s Resurrection. The meanings she has held for Christians throughout the ages are manifold, as Diane Apostolos-Cappadona celebrates and elucidates in this gorgeous journey through art history.
Although the book is a visual history, Apostolos-Cappadona offers a thorough written history to accompany the stunning full-colour images that fill the volume. Apostolos-Cappadona traces Mary Magdalene’s reception in both Eastern and Western branches of the church. The Western churches have had a strong tradition of holding Mary Magdalene up as the exemplar of a penitent sinner, which Apostolos-Cappadona explains is partially due to the conflation of Mary Magdalene with other New Testament women, such as the unnamed woman caught in adultery or the various women who anoint Jesus with oil and tears (including another Mary—Mary of Bethany). In the Eastern churches, by contrast, the various Marys and unnamed women of the New Testament were honoured separately, and Mary Magdalene was celebrated as “the faithful follower of Christ” (23), giving a very different tenor to her legacy.
In the second half of the book, Apostolos-Cappadona offers detailed analyses of specific works of art in order to draw out central motifs that mark the interpretation of Mary Magdalene, exploring her significance as sinner and seductress, penitent, anointer, weeper, witness, preacher, contemplative, reader, patron, and feminist icon. Throughout the volume, Apostolos-Cappadona gives us a thorough initiation into the art of reading Mary Magdalene art, explaining the meaning of various symbols that recur—a jar of ointment, an egg, hair styled in specific ways (or even covering her entire body like fur, as in some medieval pieces), and so on.
Apostolos-Cappadona’s selections include a broad historical range from the third century to contemporary renderings. I would have loved to see the scope of the material extended to include a wider range of cultures, for example African, Asian, or Latin American Christian traditions. Apostolos-Cappadona herself notes this absence, hoping that readers will have their appetites whet to continue exploring Mary Magdalene’s role in Christian art beyond what she was able to include in this volume.
Mary Magdalene has meant many different things to different people, and her meanings continue to unfold. Apostolos-Cappadona’s book offers a window with which to begin to access and understand this fascinating saint and her significant legacy in the Christian church.
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