"Magdalene Penitent" is a wooden sculpture by the Renaissance Italian artist Donatello

Donatello

Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi , also known as Donatello, was an early Renaissance Italian artist and sculptor from Florence...

, executed around 1453-1455. Executed likely for the Baptistery of Florence, it was received with astonishment for its unprecedented realism. It is currently housed in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo

Museo dell'Opera del Duomo (Florence)

The Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence, Italy is a museum containing many of the original works of art created for the Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore, the cathedral of Florence. The museum is located just east of the Duomo, near its apse...

 in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

.

The wood used by Donatello is that of White poplar

White Poplar

Populus alba, commonly called abele, silver poplar, silverleaf poplar, or white poplar, is a species of poplar, most closely related to the aspens . It is native from Spain and Morocco through central Europe to central Asia...

.

History

Documentation about the work is scarce. The Renaissance art historian Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari

Giorgio Vasari was an Italian painter, writer, historian, and architect, who is famous today for his biographies of Italian artists, considered the ideological foundation of art-historical writing.-Biography:...

 mentions it a work with no flaws and a perfect anatomy. Executed by Donatello when he was more than sixty years old, after he had spent a decade in Padua

Padua

Padua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...

. The dating has been established indirectly, basing on that of a copy from Neri di Bicci

Neri di Bicci

Neri di Bicci was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. A prolific painter of mainly religious themes, he was active mainly in Florence and in the medium of tempera. His father was Bicci di Lorenzo. His grandfather, Lorenzo di Bicci was also a painter in Florence, a pupil of Spinello...

's workshop (now in the Museum of the Collegiate of Empoli

Empoli

Empoli is a town and comune in Tuscany, Italy, about 20 km southwest of Florence, to the south of the Arno in a plain formed by the latter river. The plain has been usable for agriculture since Roman times. The commune's territory becomes a hilly one as it departs from the river...

), known to be from 1455.

The original destination is not exactly known. In 1500 it was in the city's baptistery. According to an Italian historian, it was seen by Charles VIII of France

Charles VIII of France

Charles VIII, called the Affable, , was King of France from 1483 to his death in 1498. Charles was a member of the House of Valois...

 in the 1480s, when he was camped with his army near Florence.

The work was damaged by the 1966 flood of the Arno River. A program of restoration was finished in 1972.