Among the female figures depicted in art, Mary Magdalene is second only to the Virgin in popularity. She appears in 36 paintings in the National Gallery, and is currently making a thirty-seventh appearance in a special display of The Repentant Magdalene by Guido Cagnacci (1601-63), on loan from the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, California (until 21 May).

The Repentant Magdalene is just one of the repertoire of roles performed by this most versatile of saints. Wander through the National Gallery and you will see her represented as a reformed courtesan in Veronese’s The Conversion of Mary Magdalene, as a principal mourner in Raphael’s Mond Crucifixion, Michelangelo’s Entombment and Rembrandt’s Lamentation over the Dead Christ, and as a privileged witness to the risen Christ in Titian’s Noli me Tangere.