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The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame

About 1635-37

Georges de La Tour
French, 1593-1652

Oil on canvas

In a gloomy interior, a single flame burns bright. Its smoke, rich with soot, drifts upward into the darkness. A young woman sits nearby, lost in thought. Resting her chin in one hand, she drops the other idly onto a skull in her lap — a gruesome reminder of the inevitability of death. The skull, together with the books, whip, and cross lying on the table, helps identify her as Mary Magdalen, a saint celebrated for her rejection of worldly temptations. Here, La Tour invites us to contemplate the beauty and brevity of mortal life.