Onofrio Palumbo

Onofrio Palumbo depicts Saint Mary Magdalene in a moment of divine reverie, as she rests one hand on a skull and gazes upon a small crucifixion. Isolated in the wilderness, she sits on a rocky outcropping, surrounded by the trappings of piety: a small scourge used for self-flagellation, the ointment jar used to anoint Christ, and an open book bearing the inscription, "tibi soli peccavi" ("against thee alone have I sinned"), all of which underscore the penitential nature of the composition.

Though little is known with certainty about the life of Palumbo, a seventeenth-century painter working in Naples, he is documented as collaborating with Artemisia Gentileschi, the greatest woman artist of her generation. 

We are grateful to Professor Nicola Spinosa for endorsing the attribution to Palumbo on the basis of digital images.