Saint Mary Magdalene

This Saint Mary Magdalene by the Master of the Palazzo Venezia Madonna, dating to around 1350 and now in the National Gallery, London, is attributed to an anonymous Roman painter named after a celebrated Madonna panel. The Magdalene was one of the most important female saints in Gothic devotion, venerated both as a model of penitence and as a witness to the Resurrection. Roman panel painting of the mid-Trecento occupied a distinctive position between the dominant Florentine and Sienese schools.

Painted in egg tempera on gold-ground panel, the Magdalene is depicted with her traditional long hair and ointment jar attribute, rendered in a style that blends Roman monumental gravity with the refined linear elegance of Sienese-influenced Gothic painting.