Saint Mary Magdalene

Crivelli's Saint Mary Magdalene is among his most celebrated single-figure panels, depicting the Magdalene in her penitent guise as a beautiful woman carrying the ointment jar. The Magdalene was one of the most popular saints of fifteenth-century Italy, especially in the area between Venice and the Marche where Crivelli worked, and her combination of erotic beauty and intense penitence suited his taste for glamorous, extravagant figure types. The painting is now in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam.

The Magdalene's elaborate dress — silk brocade, embossed gold ornament, jewelled accessories — receives Crivelli's fullest decorative attention, with the crimped golden hair and the ointment jar equally splendid.