This St. Mary Magdalene represents a new type in El Greco’s repertory of penitent saints, which so accurately reflected the spirit of the Spanish Counterreformation. Here the saint gazes up to the heavens with her hands folded in front of her lap in a gesture of deep religious devotion. The composition exhibits great similarities to the Penitent St. Peter in Tears.

In this work the rather worldly Mary Magdalene of the earlier picture has been entirely transformed. Her sensuous beauty has been replaced by a meditative and spiritual expression. The Mary Magdalene who we see here symbolises the renunciation of earthly existence and a concentration on penance. This was an outlook that was given great importance by the Counterreformation. Note the inner tension and expressiveness of the saint’s face, which El Greco achieved by the asymmetrical and slightly distorted facial characteristics.