TOUCH ME NOT: Mary Magdalene and the power of gesture in medieval and renaissance art with Felicity Harley-McGowan

During the Italian Renaissance, the ‘ideal’ image was described as that which ‘captures the eye of whatever learned or unlearned person is looking at and moves his soul’.

This lecture will explore the ways in which artists across the 6th - 16th century achieved this in representations of Mary Magdalene as the first witness of Christ’s resurrection; in particular, it will examine the use of body language as a way of provoking different emotions in the viewer.

Felicity Harley-McGowan is an historian of Late Antique and Medieval art, with particular interests in the art of early medieval Rome. She completed her PhD at The University of Adelaide, and has held research fellowships at the Warburg Institute, University of London, The British School at Rome and The Yale Divinity School.

Titian (circa 1488/1490 –1576), Noli me Tangere, about 1514, The National Gallery, London