Saint Mary Magdelene

This Saint Mary Magdalene, around 1470, in the Louvre, depicts the reformed sinner with her traditional attribute of the ointment jar. Memling's treatment combines the beauty appropriate to the legendary beauty of the Magdalene with the refined devotional tone of his religious paintings Hans Memling brought serene, refined beauty to Flemish devotional painting, becoming the leading artist in Bruges after the death of van der Weyden Altarpieces featuring rows of standing saints served both litur

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.