The Dance of the Magdalene

Lucas van Leyden

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

In this large and delicately engraved print, Mary Magdalene is depicted in her worldly life as a courtesan, prior to her conversion. In the foreground, among loving couples, she dances to the music of a piper and a drummer; a fool gestures to her from behind a tree on the left, mocking her sinful behavior. Just beyond, she is on horseback taking part in a hunt. Lucas provided few clues to the religious nature of the subject besides the halo surrounding her head and the minute depiction of her assumption into heaven (in the background to the right of the mountain). This episode in the Magdalene's life had few precedents in the visual arts but was popular in contemporary mystery plays.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.

Metropolitan Museum of Art