Saint Mary Magdelene

This Saint Mary Magdalene, around 1470 and in the Louvre, depicts the reformed sinner who washed Christ's feet with her tears and anointed him with precious ointment — the woman whose legend made her the supreme example of repentance rewarded by divine forgiveness. Memling's treatment combines the beauty appropriate to the Magdalene's legendary physical attractiveness with the refined devotional tone of his religious paintings, giving her both the sensuous presence of a real young woman and the spiritual gravity of a saint. Hans Memling brought serene, refined beauty to Flemish devotional painting, becoming the leading artist in Bruges after the death of van der Weyden. The Magdalene rendered as an elegantly dressed young woman holding her ointment jar — Memling's precise rendering of her rich costume and the translucent glass of the jar demonstrating his command of diverse material surfaces — creates a devotional image that honors both her human beauty and her spiritual transformation.

The Magdalene is rendered as an elegantly dressed young woman holding her ointment jar. Memling's precise rendering of her rich costume and the translucent glass of the jar demonstrates his command of diverse material surfaces.