Two Wings of a Triptych with the Donor, Thomas Isaacq, accompanied by Saint Thomas (left, outer wing), and the Donor's Wife accompanied by Saint Margaret (right, outer wing)

The Master of the Legend of the Magdalene was active in Brussels in the 1480s–1510s and produced elegant devotional panels for the wealthy Brabantine merchant class. These two triptych wings showing the donor Thomas Isaacq with Saint Thomas, and his wife with Saint Margaret (c. 1507), are characteristic examples of Flemish donor-portrait wings: the patron appears in prayer alongside their name-saint or intercessor, creating a personal devotional image that also documented family identity and social standing. The outer wings were visible when the triptych was closed and served as the everyday face of the altarpiece — so Thomas and his wife in their contemporary dress were the public image of the family's piety.

The Master of the Magdalene excels at the combination of precise portrait-realism and softly idealized saint figures. The donors are depicted in contemporary bourgeois dress with the Flemish oil technique's characteristic attention to textile texture — velvet nap, silk sheen, fur collar detail. Saint Thomas, by legend, carries a carpenter's square or lance; Saint Margaret stands atop the dragon. The spatial setting is a neutral grey-brown ground, placing full emphasis on the figures.