Mary Magdalene

1879

Frederic James Shields captures Mary Magdalene in a moment of quiet repentance, dominated by her cascading, golden hair that seems to have a life of its own. She kneels in a white gown, gently holding the heavy locks that famously wiped the feet of Christ, while a spool of thread rests at her feet. As a close friend of Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Shields clearly borrowed that signature Pre-Raphaelite aesthetic of flowing hair and melancholic beauty, turning a biblical figure into a dreamlike vision.

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