This work is directly inspired by the homonym model by Bartolomeo Schedoni (Modena 1578-Parma 1661), like the one held at the Minneapolis Institute of Art
The painting got a resounding success and many derivations came from it, also printed. The one here analyzed was made by Giovan Francesco Pieri […] considered the greatest wax modeler of his time […] Also this Penitent Magdalene was very lucky and various copies are known-more or less similar in details (like the trees in the back or the shrubs among the rocks) and size-among them we mention one held in Naples that on the back has a label helpful for dating, 1749.