Magdalene with the Smoking Flame [SEP] creator
Magdalene with the Smoking Flame
Magdalene with the Smoking Flame (also titled in French "La Madeleine à la veilleuse", and "La Madeleine à la flamme filante") is a 1640 oil-on-canvas depiction of Mary Magdalene by French Baroque painter Georges de La Tour. Two versions of this painting exist, one in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the other in the Louvre Museum ("La Madeleine a la veilleuse"). 
History.
The Louvre version of the painting was bought
during the Counter-Reformation, was depicted as beguilingly seductive. Like other saints, Mary Magdalene was often used as propaganda for the Catholic sacraments. For example, Francesco Vanni's painting, "The Last Communion of Mary Magdalene", shows the practice of communion with a dying women, which made a statement about the triumph of the Catholic faith against disagreements with Protestantism.
Visual Analysis.
Visual Analysis Subject Matter.
The "Magdalene with the Smoking Flame" portrays Mary Magdalene with a skull on her lap and a