Fabricating Female Saints Study On The Iconology Of Italian Painting Of Mary Magdalene Around Sixteenth Century

With crisis and various problems occurring in religions and society of Italy during the 16 th century, Mary Magdalene, as a special “transformational “woman in the New Testament of Bible, began to be portrayed in paintings and promoted by people. In addition to her religious significance of “duality”, her images in different themes reflected the metaphors and values of “Female Saints” in different levels. This paper aims to study the links between Mary Magdalene and religions, class, society and markets as well as the real purpose and influence of her being “image created” integrating the method of iconology and the image of Mary Magdalene.Firstly, summarize the background of Mary Magdalene image and related elements which contributed to its formation at the beginning.Secondly, analyze the theme and image of Mary Magdalene in Italian paintings during the 16 th century. Applying related images, the Holy Bible, hagiology and Italian social history documents as the key materials, analyze septuple theme images and change of Mary Magdalene’s image as well as status from the perspective of iconology so as to interpret the reasons for her popularity and underlying meanings of image presentation.Thirdly, research the image creation of Mary Magdalene. Based on measures and significance for image presentation, demonstrate the real purpose and influence of(the special woman in the Holy Bible)Mary Magdalene’s being “created “by studies on symbolic languages, social functions, make-ups, body manifestation and historic influences of her image. Meanwhile, it attempts to explain the rationality for the existence and change of such a “Synthetic Holy Female Saint” image.Finally, clarify the relationship between the image-building of Mary Magdalene and religions and society as well as reflections and enlightenment on her image creation and re-survey of her identity from the perspective of female issues.