The Magdalen Reading

Van der Weyden executed this painting with a remarkable level of detail, including the jewels adorning the hem of Mary's dress, the legible letters in her book, and the tiny figures in the distant landscape outside the window. Mary's elegant and slightly stylized and simplified features and hands are also characteristic of Rogier's work, although some writers find other aspects of the painting, such as the cabinet and the floor, to be less skillfully handled, indicating that they may have been painted by Rogier's assistants.

This work is one of three surviving fragments of a large altarpiece that probably depicted the Virgin and Child with Saints, as evidenced by a later drawing that seems to record a more complete portion of the altarpiece. The Magdalen would have been in the lower right corner of the composition, flanking the seated Virgin and child. Most scholars consider this an early work of the mid-1430s.

Mary Magdalene is accompanied by her characteristic attribute, the jar of ointment with which she is said to have anointed Christ's feet. She is richly dressed in a fur-lined overdress and a cloth of gold underdress, and reads a volume, probably a Bible, held in a cloth cover used to protect valuable books. Mary's absorption in her reading indicates her pious devotion. The two partially visible figures beside her are most likely Saint John the Evangelist in red, kneeling before the Christ Child, and Saint Joseph in a blue cloak, standing behind the Magdalene.

This oil on mahogany painting is in The National Gallery, London, UK