Magdalen's skull: allegory and iconography in 'Heptameron' 32

Renaissance Quarterly, Spring, 1994 by Francois Rigolot

One is not, therefore, surprised to find in the discussion following novella 32 a reference to "la Magdelaine" as the epitome of the "Pecheresse repentie" (246). Ennasuite, one of the most astute devisants, glosses the German lady's sinfulness in terms of the gospel story of Mary Magdalen:

"I find the punishment extremely reasonable," said Parlamente. "For just as the crime was worse than death, so the punishment was worse than death."

"I don't agree," said Ennasuite. "I would far rather be shut up in my room with the bones of all my lovers for the rest of my days than die for them, since there's no sin one can't make amends for while one is alive, but after death there is no making amends."

"How could you make up for loss of honour?" said Longarine. "Don't you know that nothing a woman can do after such a crime can ever restore her honour?"

To which Ennasuite replied: "Tell me, I beg you, whether the Magdalene does or does not have more honour amongst men than her sister, who was a virgin?"

"I admit," said Longarine, "that she is praised for her great love for Jesus Christ and for her great penitence, but even so she is still given the name of Sinner."

"I don't care," said Ennasuite, "what names men call me, only that God pardons me, and my husband. There is no reason why I should wish to die." (334-35)(24)

To Parlamente who finds the punishment reasonable and to Longarine who holds that nothing can ever make up for the loss of a woman's honor, Ennasuite is quick to respond by proposing the image of the greatest of penitent sinners, Mary Magdalen. What might be perceived by modern readers as a passing reference to a popular saint may, in fact, have had quite an important meaning in the context of the humanist debates and religious iconography of the time.(25) To be sure, the powerful presence of the skull in novella 32 may be partly explained by its metaphoric link with contemporary iconographic conventions. If the adulteress's repentance were to be given an exemplary status, it had somehow to be represented with an immediately recognizable attribute. The choice was rather simple: the jar of ointment would have connoted sensuality and worldly life, whereas the skull could convey the opposite idea of self-denial and penitence. Even without Ennasuite's explicit clue, the reader was expected to know the meaning of specific codes and read the sinister suppertime scene in a symbolic mode. The skull was to be interpreted as a Speculum Poenitentiae.

Several remarks should be made at this point about Marguerite's depiction of the adulterous woman in terms of sixteenth-century iconographic practice. In the novella the reason for the adulteress's cropped hair is clearly explained by the husband; according to him, his wife's head has been shaved to show that she has lost her modesty and the "honor of chastity": "She has her hair shorn, for the crowning glory of woman no more becomes an adulteress than the veil becomes the harlot. So her hair is shaved to show that she has lost her modesty and the honour of chastity" (333).(26) Although much late medieval and Renaissance iconography shows Mary Magdalen with a long, overflowing mass of beautifully sensual hair, more popular representations often present quite a different picture. In an illustration from a manuscript of Le Livre de la Passion, dating from the beginning of the fifteenth century, a vignette represents Mary Magdalen cutting off her hair with scissors (figs. I, 2).(27) The illustration is accompanied with the following title: "Marie Magdaleine coppe ses cheveux par grant contricion." By cutting her long, blond hair, the contrite sinner shows that she is ready to sacrifice her most cherished earthly possession. Sensuality is dramatically discarded by this self-inflicted deprivation as a sign of penitence.