St. Mary Mags takes an encore

All right: Per Maddie's request, St. Mary Magdalene in the Grotto makes a return appearance. The artist was Jules Joseph Lefebvre, who painted Mags in 1876. He apparently liked his Bollywood women of the day, and the nuder the better.

To see more of his paintings, go to The Art of Jules-Joseph Lefebvre. A number of them are really quite good IMO, but I prefer the clothed ones. Mags is the best of the nudes -- the others are mostly all painted in the same hip-jutting posture and get a little boring. I'm not a man, however.

Where I first came across the painting, though was at a site with the story -- a combination of information from the Bible, various legends and conjecture -- about the life of Mary Magdalene, at The Nazarene Way. Interesting reading.

The St. Mary Madalene in the Grotto painting illustrated one of the French stories of how St. Mary Magdalene came to France. (from whence Dan Brown copped some of his Da Vinci Code stuff. She would go to a grotto to reflect, fast and pray penitential prayers, according to the stories.

Somehow, I don't think the spiritual side of St. Mags was the only thing on Lefebre's mind.

There. I feel better about posting it, with a little lesson attached. St. Mags is at the top of my "Favorite Saint" list. She was a real, live passionate woman.



Maddie, you DID read the lesson, didn't you?


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Also, scroll down to Jan. 19's "I've been tagged!" entry for KJ's response to the 7 Things Meme.