Saint Mary Magdalene Preaching

The Master of the Legend of the Magdalene painted this Saint Mary Magdalene Preaching around 1515 for the Philadelphia Museum. The rare subject of the Magdalene as preacher reflected the Provençal legend that she evangelized southern France after the Ascension, a tradition particularly popular in French and Netherlandish devotional art. The oil medium allowed for rich tonal transitions and glazed layers of color that created luminous depth impossible with the older tempera technique. Such devotional panels served both liturgical contexts in churches and chapels and private devotional use in the homes of wealthy families who maintained personal altars and oratories.

The panel presents the unusual subject with the detailed narrative approach characteristic of the Brussels master, with careful attention to the audience and landscape setting in the Brabantine workshop manner.