EQUINOX MUSE: Georges de La Tour + Mary Magdalene Series

Georges de La Tour painted multiple versions of Mary Magdalene across the 1630s and 40s, always coming back to the same sparse arrangement: a candle, a skull, a mirror, a body seated in stillness, turned inward. De La Tour was a chiaroscuro magician, chiaro (light) and oscuro (dark). The flame lights her face and a bit of her body while the rest recedes into a dense, velvety darkness. The light is small and contained yet it gathers the entire scene around it and holds it right there for us to witness. The shadow holds it too, gathering the edges, keeping the scene from spilling, giving depth and weight to what the light reveals. They work together 🌓 It is magnificent. When I think of a mastery of balancing light and shadow, I think of these paintings. (I am writing a longer juicier substack piece about this)

At this equinox, day and night hang in balance, that moment before we tilt into darkness in the southern hemisphere (autumn), and a step back into the light in the northern hemisphere (spring) A new season of our life arrives. De La Tour’s Magdalene feels aligned with the equinox, sitting with what is emerging without forcing it into clarity. 🕯️