Saint Mary Magdalen

Pieter van der Werff was a Leiden painter who worked primarily in the fijnschilder tradition of Gerard Dou and Willem van Mieris. His Saint Mary Magdalen from 1714 brings the meticulous technique of the fijnschilder school to a devotional subject that was among the most popular in Catholic and Protestant alike, combining penitential narrative with the pictorial opportunity of a beautiful, emotionally expressive female figure. The Magdalen's standard iconography — tears, flowing hair, skull, and ointment jar — allowed painters to explore the full range of penitent emotion within a sacred framework.

Van der Werff renders the Magdalen's emotional state through the careful modeling of her tearful expression and the luxuriant fall of her hair against skin and drapery. His fijnschilder technique achieves a near-enamel smoothness of surface, giving the emotional subject a quality of cool, refined intensity.