Elevation of the Magdalen

Antonio del Pollaiuolo's Elevation of the Magdalen from around 1460 depicts Mary Magdalen being carried to heaven by angels during her final years of contemplative withdrawal in Provence, a narrative popular in late medieval hagiography. Pollaiuolo was among the most dynamic figure painters of fifteenth-century Florence, his interest in musculature and physical movement evident even in this devotional subject. He and his brother Piero ran one of the most important workshops in Florence, producing paintings, embroideries, sculptures, and metalwork for the Medici and other major patrons. The angular energy of Pollaiuolo's figures, derived from his goldsmith's training and deep interest in ancient sculpture, gave Florentine painting a new physical intensity that influenced Botticelli, Ghirlandaio, and ultimately Michelangelo in his study of the human body in action.

Pollaiuolo renders the ascending figure with his characteristic anatomical precision, using the angular lifting motion to create a dynamic composition that demonstrates his mastery of the human form in unusual spatial orientations.