Donatello's Mary Magdalene - Directed #2

Donatello's Mary Magdalene:

Looking at Donatello's Mary Magdalene, it is evident that the sculpture does not highlight or reflect feminine beauty at all. Unlike the conventional ways of representing Mary Magdalene by showing her beauty, Donatello focused on a different aspect of her. Looking at the sculpture, I was drawn towards the eyes and secondly to the hands folded in prayer. It felt like everything else does not matter. There is a lot of emotion in her eyes. And the way she is bringing her hands together in prayer, talks about the emotion in her eyes. I got a very different feeling from the picture in the Power point slide where she is placed in front of Jesus Christ. It added a whole new meaning to the sculpture itself. The way her body is covered by her hair, tells us how it did not matter to her what she wears. Also, anyone looking at the picture will not be distracted by her clothes or her body but will be taken directly to the actual purpose and meaning of her which is evident from her eyes.

The way Donatello did not follow the classical form and showed us a totally different perspective of Mary Magdalene reminds me of Ballari Raghava (1880-1946) a famous stage actor from South India.

Generally in the plays based on Ramayana, the Hindu epic, Ravana, who is the antagonist of Rama, will always be portrayed by a person with a large mustache, long hair, thick eyebrows and all such things that would frighten the audience. Everyone can make out Ravana just by looking at the costume. Contrary to this, Ballari Raghava playing Ravana in a play, entered the scene wearing a white costume and with a smile on his face. People became very angry and no one accepted the way he was portraying a demon king. He then explained that the good and evil is in our minds and not the way we dress. He wanted to show that Ravana is also a regular human being who looked just like any one of us, but his thoughts and deeds made him a demon. Though it took time for the people to accept this radical presentation of Ravana, his philosophy was later praised by everyone.