Researchers claim to have come across a figure of great importance in Michelangelo’s nearly 500-year-old painting, The Last Judgment.

Located on an entire altar wall in the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City, the artistic masterpiece took over four years to complete and depicts the second coming of Jesus Christ, containing around 300 individuals either ascending to heaven or descending to hell on the day of their “last judgment.”

Experts have now pointed out that Christ’s disciple, Mary Magdalene, is included in the painting as well — but that she’d been “hiding in plain sight” all along.

Mary Magdalene, a disciple of Christ, seems to have been “hiding in plain sight” in the Sistine Chapel for almost 500 years

Image credits: Snowdog / Wikipedia

Italian art restorer Sara Penco knew how much knowledge Renaissance painter Michelangelo had under his belt and didn’t think he’d leave such a vital figure out of a pivotal scene, according to the New York Post. 

“Michelangelo was an expert painter, he was very cultured, he was someone who knew the dynamics of the church very well, he knew the gospels and he could not have forgotten her,” Penco claimed.

And perhaps she was right.

Image credits: The Last Judgment by Michelangelo / Public Domain

When looking off to the far right-hand corner of the legendary art piece, the saint is partly obscured by the bottom of the cross Jesus is hanging from, identified by her yellow dress and blonde hair.

“I am firmly convinced that this is Mary Magdalene,” Penso stated, who is about to publish the Biblical painting in her book Mary Magdalene in Michelangelo’s Judgment this week.

Image credits: The Last Judgment by Michelangelo / Public Domain

Between 1508 and 1512, Michelangelo painted the Sistine chapel’s ceiling, a project that changed the course of Western art and is regarded as one of the major artistic accomplishments of human civilization

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With Jesus supposedly having loved Mary Magdalene more than his other disciples, as depicted in other gnostic gospels, Penco was able to spot her with the “intimate” placing of her figure, seen kissing the cross.

“The cross-bearer is looking in the direction of Mary Magdalene, it is as if he is estranged from the composition looking towards the woman peacefully holding the wood and the cross,” she said. 

Penco’s conclusion has some merit, according to other experts

Image credits: scripta maneant

Her reasoning was backed by Professor Yvonne Dohna Schlobitten of the Gregorian University in Rome. 

In the forward of Penco’s upcoming book, she wrote, “Iconography and theology are linked in Penco’s reasoning to form a vision: the woman kissing the cross has an important role, even if she appears hidden on the edges of the image.” 

If these verdicts are true, Penco may have finally solved a mystery that’s eluded researchers for centuries.

Image credits: scripta maneant

Indeed, since Michelangelo completed The Last Judgment, viewers, historians, and researchers have all “noticed” the blonde figure hiding behind the cross, but have claimed to be unable to identify her, as reported by The Travel. 

New research also allegedly suggests that an additional Easter egg is hidden in the master painting, depicting a woman battling breast cancer.

Mary Magdalene was an important part of Biblical history

Image credits: Michelangelo by Daniele da Volterra / Public Domain

Magdalene was known as one of Christ’s disciples, accompanying him in Galilee. 

According to Britannica, all four canonical Gospels attested that she was present for both his crucifixion and resurrection.

Image credits: Sistine Chapel ceiling by Michelangelo / Public Domain

She went with two other women on Easter morning to anoint his corpse but ran to the disciples once she found his tomb to be empty.

Jesus then appeared to her and instructed her to tell the Apostles that he was ascending to God, as stated in the outlet.