EXHIBITION MARIA MAGDALENA SIN. PRAY. LOVE. STÄDEL MUSEUM, FRANKFURT

17.9.2026–17.1.2027

From Dürer to Lady Gaga, from Beckmann to Lotte Laserstein: The Städel Museum and the Liebieghaus Sculpture Collection are presenting a comprehensive exhibition on the extraordinary figure of Mary Magdalene for the first time in the German-speaking world. 

The show traces how her image has changed over the centuries – from the apostle and faithful follower of Jesus to the sinner and ascetic penitent, to the ecstatic saint, to the modern, self-determined woman as a figure of identification.

About the exhibition

The starting point of the exhibition are central works from the collections of the Städel Museum and the Liebieghaus Sculpture Collection. 

More than 100 top-class paintings, sculptures and graphics from the Middle Ages to the present day, including important loans from German and international collections, open up a multifaceted view of the artistic and emotional range of depictions of Mary Magdalene.

With a special focus on female artists, the Städel Museum is showing works by Lavinia Fontana, Elisabetta Sirani, Luisa Roldán, Lotte Laserstein, Kiki Smith, Marlene Dumas, and Nieves González, among others; in addition, major works by important artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Pedro de Mena, Guercino, Georges de la Tour, Claude Lorrain, Arnold Böcklin, Max Beckmann and David LaChapelle are presented.

Hardly any other subject has been depicted and reinterpreted in such a variety of ways over the centuries.

Philipp Demandt, Director of the Städel Museum and the Liebieghaus Sculpture Collection

Mary Magdalene is one of the most complex figures in the Christian tradition. She is a contradictory figure who has been constructed and reinterpreted over the centuries: as a companion of Christ, as a saint and a sinner, as a symbol of desire and penance. 

From the writings of the New Testament to medieval legends to the present day, she has experienced countless interpretations in art, often reflecting the ideas of her time of femininity, spirituality and independence.

The exhibition at the Städel Museum shows these diverse interpretations of Mary Magdalene: she is both a projection screen for cultural and religious ideas and an independent, polyphonic figure that mediates between body, faith and the social roles ascribed to her. 

At the same time, the show traces its iconographic transformation into popular culture and makes visible how each epoch has inscribed its own questions, ideas and longings in the figure.

An exhibition by the Städel Museum and the Liebieghaus Sculpture Collection

Curators

Dr. Bastian Eclercy (Head of the Collection of Italian, French and Spanish Paintings before 1800, Städel Museum)Dr. Stefan Roller (Head of the Medieval Collection, Liebieghaus Sculpture Collection)

https://www.staedelmuseum.de/de/maria-magdalena