Redeeming the ‘Sinful Woman’

The Penance of Jane Shore in St Paul’s Church by William Blake does not refer directly to Luke 7. Rather, Blake’s work depicts the historical event of the public penance of King Edward IV’s mistress Elizabeth ‘Jane’ Shore after the monarch’s death in 1483.  

The ‘walk of shame’ demanded of the noble woman Jane Shore after her long romances with the King and other nobility, was ostensibly a punishment for her wantonness and sexual immorality. Others theorized that the spectacle was in fact orchestrated by Edward’s brother,  Richard III, in response to allegations that Jane had been passing political messages amongst his enemies.  

It is the punishment itself, rather than the crime, that is depicted in this work by Blake, made two centuries after her death and undoubtedly with Early Modern plays based on her life in mind. Jane steps towards the centre of the composition. She is wrapped in a blanket over her kirtel (underdress) and holds a taper in her hand. She is surrounded by a group of soldiers and at right a group of spectators stare at her, perhaps censoriously. 

This work is interesting for the manner in which it depicts female penitence and what appears to be the inevitable public humiliation that accompanies it. Jane is half dressed by the standards of Tudor nobility, and—in a way not dissimilar to the Rubens painting elsewhere in this exhibition (albeit with a very different level of agency over the situation)—she is placed at the forefront of the bustling crowd. It is a place of exposure.

Nevertheless, the presence of the soldiers is indicative of Jane’s status, class, and relative safety despite the situation. Although she was subject to taunts and was even imprisoned, she later married, living out the rest of her life in bourgeois comfort.  

The viewer may read the scene as one of a powerless woman, forced to humiliate herself in public for the sake of a tyrannical king. Alternatively, we may see a political agent escaping harsher punishment by shielding herself in her gender and class. 

The left side of Peter Paul Rubens’s composition is crowded with jostling guests, servers, and attendants. Faces, dishes, and fabrics create a maelstrom of bodies and material possessions in stark contrast to the sober black background which frames the figures on the right of the painting. Jesus and his disciples are depicted by the Flemish artist as calm and composed in the face of the disordered rabble opposite them.  

Even though the title that has been given to this painting omits any mention of the sinful woman, the swirl of people and the dramatic lighting draw the eye inwards towards the central, lowered figure of the woman by Jesus’s feet. Her porcelain skin and body are emphasized by a low-cut dress and hair pushed back from her face. Her supplication is demonstrated in her posture and proximity to Jesus’s foot as she both applies and seems to smell the anointing oil while kissing Christ’s feet in an act of devotion and tenderness.  

Only one disciple appears to look down at the woman, as Jesus and the man we can assume to be Simon the Pharisee—seated opposite him—debate their respective positions on forgiveness (Luke 7:44).

As absorbed in and committed to her task as the woman is, the extent to which the artist has emphasized her submission and sensuality could be interpreted as debasing, even humiliating. Many other examples of artworks illustrating this narrative place the woman not just on the floor out of necessity, but in a near prostrate position, crawling and half-dressed. This example begs the question of whether women’s public shaming is intrinsically tied to their redemption in a way that the redemption of male biblical protagonists is not.

Mary Magdalene Leaving the House of Feasting by Dante Gabriel Rossetti explicitly identifies Mary Magdalene as the ‘sinful’ woman mentioned in Luke 7:37, in a tradition that goes back to Pope Gregory I, and that is still common today (despite the Roman Catholic Church officially distancing itself from this view in 2016).  

The figure of the protagonist in the foreground dominates the watercolour, leaving only a small background scene visible at the right of the sheet. The female figure in this secondary scene may well represent Mary a second time, at an earlier point—before her departure from the house of the Pharisee.

The position of her feet and windswept hair indicate she is hurrying from the scene with purpose. Mary’s demeanour is solemn, she clutches her pot of ointment to her chest protectively and appears determined. A halo glows around her head indicating her holiness and perhaps her newfound status as one who has been saved.  

The Magdalene was closely associated in Christian tradition with prostitution and extra-marital sex, particularly in the Victorian era where homes for ‘fallen’ women and other charitable endeavours were founded and often dedicated to her to eradicate this ‘problem’ in the lower classes. Rossetti does not, however, depict a wanton or degraded Magdalene so as to make of her a cautionary tale. Instead, the artist has chosen an empowered, renewed, and even inspirational character for his painting.  

The story clearly fascinated Rossetti: he went on to depict Mary twice more in Mary Magdalene at the Door of Simon the Pharisee (1858) and a portrait study in 1859. The overwhelming impression given by this work is one of redemption, forgiveness, and moving on. Mary moves swiftly from her old life and devotedly into the new one she has chosen with Christ. Although depicting a story of contrition, Rossetti appears to celebrate the vulnerability and bravery it takes to repent rather than relishing the spectacle.