Mary Magdalene

After entering the technical school in Giulianova, Crocetti worked at an art restorer’s. He won the Grand Prize for Italian Sculpture at the Venice Biennale in 1938. He made a door for Saint Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican. After working on animal sculptures, he combined human figures and horses as ornate and dynamic figurative sculptures.

Mary Magdalene has often been employed as an icon of repentance in Christian art. The repentant Mary Magdalene covers her face and dishevels her hair in frenzied lamentation. Though her clothes cling to her body in the raging wind and the creases of the fabric are carved strongly, her feet stand firmly on the ground, indicating the depth of her faith. Having experienced restoration as a young man, Crocetti boasted sound technique and excelled in lively sculptures of running horses or combinations of warriors and horses. Such distinctive qualities are also manifested in the expression full of movement in this work, too.