Portrayed in an unadorned setting and sitting on a low chair, as if crushed by the shot from above, with a single ray of light that cuts across the canvas, a girl with a pale complexion and long auburn hair, her hands gently resting on her lap and her face turned down, she cries in agony and a single clear tear slips from her half-closed right eye. The painting dates back to Caravaggio's first Roman activity (1597) and depicts the Sinner who has just renounced her past worldly life, abandoning a string of pearls and jewels on the ground together with the jar of ointment, her characteristic attribute.