MARY MAGDALENE may have been identified among 300 entangled figures depicted in Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel masterpiece after a centuries-long search.
Sara Penco, an Italian art restorer, said her research suggested that a blonde woman in The Last Judgment, shown kissing a wooden cross held by a figure said to be Jesus Christ, was his famous disciple.
"I am firmly convinced that this is Mary Magdalene ... the intimacy with the cross, the yellow dress and the blond hair, but also the whole context in which Michelangelo places this figure to emphasize its importance," Ms. Penco told a news conference yesterday.
Art experts have long tried to identify the wide-eyed woman, who appears in the far right corner of the fresco behind the altar in the Vatican chapel.
Ms. Penco, who specializes in Renaissance and Baroque art, said her research should finally put the mystery to rest.
She said, "The fresco screamed that something was missing. Michelangelo was an expert painter, he was very learned, he was someone who knew the dynamics of the church very well, he knew the Gospels and he couldn't have forgotten her." According to the Bible, Mary Magdalene was one of Christ's faithful disciples who accompanied him as he spread his message.
Once portrayed as a repentant prostitute, she is now widely regarded as a saint by the Catholic faith and other Christian religions.
Her findings will be published this week in the book Mary Magdalene in Michelangelo's Judgment.
The Daily Telegraph