![Caravaggio - Martha and Mary Magdalene [c.1598]](http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8646/15683103809_991aa5af93_o.jpg)
The painting shows the sisters Martha and Mary from the New Testament. Martha is in the act of converting Mary from her life of pleasure to the life of virtue in Christ. Martha, her face shadowed, leans forward, passionately arguing with Mary, who twirls an orange blossom between her fingers as she holds a mirror, symbolising the vanity she is about to give up. The power of the image lies in Mary's face, caught at the moment when conversion begins.
[Detroit Institute of Art - Oil on canvas, 100 x 134.5 cm]