Synopsis
The Paris Magdalene is the tale of three women in three times, which, after two millenia, introduces the female story into the narrative of Christianity.
Piero di Cosimo, La Maddalena (1501)
How does a painting, entitled The Nourishing Magdalene, c1504, come to affect the research of a Canadian art historian in Paris? Mori St. Clair is awarded a bursary, offered by La Leche League, to present a visual history of nursing mothers throughout Western Civilization. She is working at the university complex in the heart of St. Germaine des Pres, when she meets Rose de LaCroix, a young graduate student. Together they make a discovery that so threatens conventional belief that their lives are put at risk. The two women are drawn into several parallel tales.
The oldest story goes back to Palestine, two thousand years ago and the attempt to build a new and open faith, through the couple who saw their beliefs sacrificed for temporal power. Myriam of Magdala, was the Mother of Sarah, fathered by the Jewish revolutionary, Yeshua the Nazorean. Their dynastic marriage, the knowledge of which has long been surpressed, emerges through mediaeval songs, poems, and opera, recognized by scholars, and artists. Myriam recalls events in her life from her new home, a cave in Provence.
Mary Magdalene, drawing by Leonardo Da Vinci
The second story tells of the artist, Maraclea Lantari, who was an apprentice to Leonardo da Vinci in Milano. Her provocative canvas depicted a woman nursing her baby, which was discovered in 20th century Paris. Maraclea had been privy to esoteric thought, through her famous teacher, da Vinci. Remnants of her sketchbook inadvertently end up with the two contemporary scholars, Mori and Rose. Her painting had been hidden, its subject matter considered too volatile for public viewing.
The modern story sees Mori putting disparate pieces of an ancient puzzle together. She, along with her friend Rose, are treated as dangerous subversives, threats to conventional religious thought. An enigmatic Bishop ruthlessly curtails their research. Mori is introduced to the inside of life in Provence by Jake, a Swiss filmmaker, and to Paris, by Yannick, a discredited academic, with his dark heritage. She is deeply drawn into the welter of cabalistic thought, and of one tragic marriage. As she tumbles upon incontravertible truths, she grasps the real version of one of the most maligned woman in history.
Myriam lived in Palestine 2000 years ago. She loved and married a man who would change the world. Not in the way he wanted. Myri has tried to tell her story for a long time. Many people resented the truth of her life. She wanted it told.
Maraclea was an artist who told Myriamne's story through her painting. She was guided by the man she worked for and studied under.
In Milano, in the 1490's, women were not permitted to paint for a living. Leonardo da Vinci knew the story of Myriamne, and helped Maraclea paint it. They wanted their world to know.
Memori, known as Mori, is of our time. She moved to Paris from Canada in 1993 to work on a project for La Leche League. She was an art historian, and she found parts of Myriam's story in a painting.
She tried to find the rest.
