Seeing Light
Georges de La Tour
The Magdalen with the Smoking Flame
about 1635–37
Oil on canvas, 117 × 91.8 cm. Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Her face, hand and sleeve, nearest the flame, are brightest; the lap and skull are dimmer, and the legs fade into shadow.
- LACMA calls the candle the painting's "chief symbol and true subject".
- The skull's polish and the books' leather answer the flame in different ways.
- His sharp turns from light to dark descend from Caravaggio, whose manner reached him through the painter Jean Le Clerc.
Concepts
Image: Los Angeles County Museum of Art (photo © Museum Associates/LACMA) · Public domain (LACMA)