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THE MAGDALEN CONVERTED.

LE BRUN.

THE holy scriptures make mention only of two Magdalens: one the sister of Lazarus; the other Mary Magdalen, so called, from the village of Magdala, situate in Galilee. This latter female, after having been cured by Jesus, attached herself to that divine personage, accompanied him in all his journeys, followed him to Mount Calvary, and, after having seen him deposited in the tomb, returned to Jerusalem in order to procure perfumes to embalm his body. During her absence, Christ had risen, and filled her with considerable surprize, by presenting himself to her view. We have no other particulars of this interesting character.

The appellation, therefore, of Magdalen, so universally given to the female sinner, the subject of the picture before us, and of whose name even we are ignorant, is, perhaps, improper. In other respects, all that is related of this converted courtezan, will be found in the Gospel of St. Luke, chap..vii. verse S.

She is represented by Le Brun, with all the expression of grief and remorse. She has broken and trodden under foot the fragile ornaments of her vanity; the objects of luxury and seduction, and the infamous price of her misdeeds. For the last time, she appears to have conemplated, in a glass, her fleeting charms, those vain

attractions, which allured her into guilt. She rends her apparel, raises her eyes to heaven, swollen with her tears; a luminous cloud breaks over her head, and attests the effect of the divine mercy, which delivered her to repentance, and restored her to virtue.

This picture, skilfully designed, and rich in point of ordonnance, but deficient in colouring, was painted for the Convent of the Carmelites. It is said that Le Brun conceived the idea of representing, in the person of the Magdalen, the features of a woman, celebrated: for her follies and her remorse:-the Duchess de la Vallière, one of the mistresses of Louis XIV. We can, however, scarcely believe, that Le Brun, loaded as he was with the favours of that monarch, would have had the imprudence to carry such a design into execution. The figure has, moreover, not the smallest conformity with the known portrait of Madame de la Vallière.

The picture of The Sinner Converted (for such should be its title, and not that of the Magdalen, with which it has no connexion) was removed, at the beginning of the revolution, from the Church of the Carmelites, to the Central Museum.-It now forms a part of the Museum of Versailles.

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