Martha and Mary Magdalene. Martha and Mary Magdalene is a painting by the Italian Baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio.
It is in the Detroit Institute of Arts. Alternate titles include Martha Reproving Mary, The Conversion of the Magdalene, and the Alzaga Caravaggio.
Caravaggio's Martha and Mary is dated to 1598-99, when he was in the entourage of Cardinal Francesco Maria Del Monte. Little is known of its history between those years and 25 June 1971, when its owners attempted to sell it at Christie's in London.
It remained unsold at 130,000 guineas, despite the confidence of the restorer Juan Corradini of Buenos Aires. Later converts were Benedict Nicolson and Mina Gregori.
Today it is generally considered an autograph work. It was acquired by the Detroit Institute of Arts in 1973. It is thought that the painting was originally in the collection of Caravaggio's patron Ottavio Costa. His will of 6 August 1606, contains a painting by this description and states that Riggerio Tritonio, secretary of Cardinal Montalto, is to choose between the Martha and Mary and a Saint Francis; the painting not selected was to go to Costa's friend and colleague Giovanni Enriquez de Herrera. Since the Saint Francis later appears in the inventory of Tritinio, it has been assumed that the Martha and Mary passed to Herrera, probably in late 1606. Giovanni Enriquez de Herrera died on 1 March 1610, without a will, thu