In the 17th century, the painters seemed to have a special interest in light. Starting with Caravaggio, whether Velazquez or Rembrandt, they were trying to find some exciting things from the contrast of light and shade. However, in the same generation, there was an outstanding French painter with unceasing exploration. That was Georges De La Tour who was good at the candlelight.
Repenting Magdalene Also Called Magdalene In A Flickering Light was a preventative of La Tour for the performance of candlelight. We saw the whole genre painting was in a dark shadow, only the candles on the table forming the weak light source with the orange light to light a small area. No one wished to break the quietness, a woman sat at the table and was indulge in thinking whit her arms. She was Mary Magdalene. Magdalene was the important woman only following the virgin Maria in the Bible, who was also known as the "Maria Magdalene". It turned out that she was a prostitute and living a debauchery life, but in the appeal of Jesus Christ, she abandoned the past and followed the good and became a faithful disciple of Christ. She accompanied the Jesus to watch Jesus being crucified on the cross, and then again in three days witnessed the resurrection of Christ, became one of the witnesses of miracles.
Here, La Tour made Mary Magdalene behave naive and sad in this tenebrism painting. No gorgeous costumes and worldly pleasures, only the clear and quiet reflection. Her soft hands were gently down on the half round things which were placed in the light in contrast to the candlelight behind. When the viewer's eyes followed the light, the mirror mapped out its prototype which was a symbol of the decayed skull of the life of the body. At this time, careful viewers may have experienced painter's secret in the composition: the head of Mary Magdalene, the skull, the skull in the mirror formed a triangle, enclosing the center of candlelight to attract people's attention with the only source of light, which made people be unable to distinguish between what is real and what illusory.
Tenebrism: was from the Italian tenebroso (murky), also called dramatic illumination, is a style of painting using very pronounced chiaroscuro, where there are violent contrasts of light and dark and darkness becomes a dominating feature of the image. Caravaggio, a Baroque artist, is generally credited with the invention of the style, although this technique was used much earlier by various artists, such as Albrecht Durer.
