Michelangelo painted secret figure in Sistine Chapel masterpiece, art expert claims: ‘I am firmly convinced’
Did they find her using a Magda-fying glass?
Researchers have claimed that Christ disciple Mary Magdalene may have been hiding in plain sight in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel masterpiece for nearly 500 years.
The sneaky figure’s identity was floated by Italian art restorer Sara Penco, who is publishing the Biblical bombshell in her book, “Mary Magdalene in Michelangelo’s Judgement,” this week.
“I am firmly convinced that this is Mary Magdalene,” Penco, who specializes in Renaissance and Baroque art, announced at an art conference in Rome on Tuesday, the Telegraph reported.
Researchers have revealed that Christ disciple Mary Magdalene may have been hiding in plain sight in Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel masterpiece for nearly 500 years.
She was referring to a figure in the right-hand corner of “The Last Judgement,” a legendary depiction of the second coming of Christ and God’s final judgment painted at the Sistine Chapel — located at the modern-day Vatican — between 1537 and 1531.
She is a blond woman seen kissing a cross toted by a nude man who’s believed to be Jesus Christ.
Sara Penco has claimed that a blond woman kissing a cross (pictured) is Mary Magdalene. “Michelangelo was an expert painter, he was very cultured, he was someone who knew the dynamics of the church very well, he knew the gospels and he could not have forgotten her,” she declared. Sara Penco
While well-camouflaged among the other 300 figures in the magnum opus, the legendary penitent was flagged by Penco because of the “intimacy with the cross, the yellow dress and the blonde hair” and her prominent placement in the painting.
“The cross-bearer is looking in the direction of Mary Magdalene, it is as if he is estranged from the composition looking towards the woman peacefully holding the wood and the cross,” she said.
The Renaissance master had a vast knowledge of Biblical canon and wouldn’t have left such an integral figure out of a divine scene, argued Penco, who thought the altar fresco screamed “that something was missing.”
“Michelangelo was an expert painter, he was very cultured, he was someone who knew the dynamics of the church very well, he knew the gospels and he could not have forgotten her,” Penco declared.
Michelangelo’s “Last Judgment” fresco at the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. Corbis via Getty Images
“The Creation of Adam” at the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican in Rome. Corbis via Getty Images
If she did indeed fill in this missing puzzle piece, she may have closed the book a mystery that’s eluded researchers for centuries.
Her historical theory also has been backed by Professor Yvonne Dohna Schlobitten of the Gregorian University in Rome.
She wrote in the forward to Penco’s book that “iconography and theology are linked in Penco’s reasoning to form a vision: the woman kissing the cross has an important role, even if she appears hidden on the edges of the image.”
Magdalene is known as one of Christ’s most prominent disciples, present for both his crucifixion and resurrection and the one who spread the “good news” of the latter, per the gospel.
Incorrectly portrayed as a prostitute throughout history, the disciple is seen as a poster child for repentant sinners.
This isn’t the only alleged Easter egg hidden within a Michelangelo masterwork.
New research suggests that Michelangelo had etched a woman battling breast cancer into one of the Sistine Chapel ceiling frescos.
