The Holy Trinity with Saint John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene, Tobias and the Angel (detail) by Sandro Botticelli (c.1490-95)
Botticelli painted this altarpiece featuring the Trinity to decorate the high altar of the church of a female convent dedicated to Saint Elizabeth in Florence. The convent had been founded in the fourteenth-century especially for former prostitutes (known as convertite) and also for women fleeing abusive relationships. The detail of the painting featured here depicts the upper half of the work. The Trinity appears in the centre of the composition in the form known as the Throne of Mercy. In this iconographic formula (which dates from the early twelfth century) God the Father supports the Crucified Christ, while the dove as symbol of the Holy Spirit rests between the heads of Father and his Son. Mary Magdalene appears at our left opposite John the Baptist who traditionally is identified through his costume – the tunic made of animal skin and the cross he carries. The cult of both these saints flourished in Florence during the fifteenth-century. John the Baptist did so because of his status as one of the major patrons of the city. The position of the Magdalene in the place of privilege at the right hand of God attests to the nuns’ special devotion to her. Following a tradition dating back to at least the sixth-century, the church in the West believed that three different women - Mary Magdalene whom Christ delivered from demons, Mary of Bethany and the unnamed woman who anointed Christ in the house of the Pharisee were in fact the same woman. According to this interpretation, Mary Magdalene before her conversion in the house of the Pharisee had been a prostitute. According to legend after the Ascension she travelled to France (together with Martha and Lazarus) to preach. After thirty years spent evangelising, she retired to the wilderness to live as a hermit. The Magdalene appears here gesturing in adoration and covered with her own hair, a reference to her time in the wilderness. In her role as penitent prostitute the Magdalene became a powerful model of God’s forgiveness. Not surprisingly, institutions established to help women escape prostitution frequently invoked the intercession of the Magdalene. Many women and men took great comfort from the fact that it was to the Magdalene, a penitent sinner, that Christ had first appeared after the Resurrection. Equally important, the Magdalene undertook to announce her Master’s Resurrection to the apostles – hence her title “apostle to the apostles”.
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