"Trained by Albani, one of the Bolognese ‘classicists’ represented at their peak in this Gallery by Guido Reni and Guercino, Cignani was one of the most admired artists of his generation.
Mary Magdalen, the prostitute who was redeemed by Christ himself, represented repentance at its most dramatic. The sensuous beauty, who according to legend retired to Sainte-Baume in Provence, spending thirty years in impoverished penitence, was therefore one of the most popular devotional saints of the Catholic world - she embodied hope of forgiveness for everybody, no matter how great a sinner. Artists loved her too, often shamelessly more for her beauty than her spirituality - the glimpse of flesh amongst the rags."
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