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Arch Facial Plast Surg. 2005;7:212.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

The Magdalene is shown half-length against a dark background gazing directly out at the viewer as she lifts the lid of an alabaster ointment jar. Luini’s small panel painting of the Magdalene is an archetypal example of a devotional image, which is defined as a nonnarrative religious painting designed to facilitate prayerful meditation. Typical of devotional images, Luini’s painting of the Magdalene is confrontational; the monumental figure of the saint is depicted close to the picture plane against a dark indiscriminate background to heighten the intimacy of the encounter between the image and its beholder.

During the 16th century, religious art was the target of the iconoclastic fury of the Protestant leaders of the Reformation who argued that devotional images led to idolatry. The Catholic bishops retaliated at the Council of Trent thereby reaffirming the efficacy of images of the saints to evoke empathy and emulation in the faithful. Moreover, . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Lisa Duffy-Zeballos