Saints Eustachia, Mary Magdalene and Saint Jerome

This companion panel to the Augustine-Catherine-Anthony triptych was also painted in 1498, and the three saints — Eustachia, Mary Magdalene, and Jerome — represent a pairing of penitential saints (Jerome, Magdalene) with the martyr Eustachia, whose veneration was strong in central Italy. Signorelli's decision to give Magdalene her traditional attributes — the ointment jar, the unbound hair — while rendering her with the same physical authority he gives to male saints reflects his tendency to refuse conventional hierarchies of beauty and power in religious imagery. Jerome's aged, gaunt body is particularly characteristic of his interest in male anatomy at the extremes of age.

Jerome's exposed torso, which Signorelli renders with his characteristic sculptural approach to the aging male body, contrasts with the richly clothed female saints. The three-figure arrangement creates dynamic contrasts in height, gesture, and costume texture. Warm landscape details visible between the figures connect this panel to its pendant in spatial conception.