Sainte Marie Madeleine

Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio painted this Saint Mary Magdalene around 1510 for the Condé Museum in Chantilly. As head of the Ghirlandaio workshop—one of Florence's most prestigious artistic enterprises—Ridolfo served both ecclesiastical and private patrons with refined devotional images. The tempera-on-panel medium required a carefully gessoed surface and was painted in fine, precise layers, yielding a luminous, jewel-like surface of great durability.

The panel shows Ridolfo's refined Florentine technique with clear modeling, warm luminous palette, and the gentle idealization characteristic of early Cinquecento devotional painting.