Mary Magdalene writing.

The Master of the Female Half-Lengths' Mary Magdalene Writing belongs to his characteristic series of half-length female figures engaged in cultivated activities — music-making, reading, writing — that combine devotional content with images of female intellectual accomplishment. The Magdalene as writer could be connected to her role as witness and reporter of Christ's Resurrection, her letter or text becoming a form of apostolic testimony. The master's characteristic warmth and precision in rendering fabric textures and the woman's absorbed concentration create an intimate image that served both devotional and secular aesthetic functions for the private collectors who commissioned such works.

The painting demonstrates the technical conventions and artistic vocabulary of the period, with attention to composition, color, and the rendering of form appropriate to the subject.