The Magdalen Reading
The Magdalen Reading is one of three surviving fragments of a large mid-15th-century oil-on-panel altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden. The panel, originally oak, was completed some time between 1435 and 1438 and has been in the National Gallery, London since 1860. It is described by art historian Lorne Campbell as ‘one of the great masterpieces of 15th- century art’
About The Magdalen Reading in brief
The Magdalen Reading is one of three surviving fragments of a large mid-15th-century oil-on-panel altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden. The panel, originally oak, was completed some time between 1435 and 1438 and has been in the National Gallery, London since 1860. It shows a woman with the pale skin, high cheek bones and oval eyelids typical of the idealised portraits of noble women of the period. The figure above her has been identified as belonging to a fragment in the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisbon, which shows the head of Saint Joseph. Another Lisbon fragment, showing what is believed to be Saint Catherine of Alexandria, is thought to be from the same larger work. It is described by art historian Lorne Campbell as “one of the great masterpieces of 15th- century art and among van der WEYDEN’s most important early works. The Magdalene Reading can first be traced to an 1811 sale. After passing through the hands of a number of dealers in the Netherlands, the panel was purchased by the National gallery, London, in 1860 from a collector in Paris. The original Altarpiece was a sacra conversazione, known only through a drawing, Virgin and Child with Saints, in Stockholm’s Nationalmuseum, which followed a partial copy of the painting that probably dated from the late 16th century. It was rare for contemporary portraits to show women reading, and if the model herself could read then she was likely from a noble family.
In Catholic tradition the magdalen was conflated with both Mary of Bethany who anointed the feet of Jesus with oil and the unnamed ‘sinner’ of Luke 7: 36–50. She is presented as completely absorbed in her reading, a model of the contemplative life, repentant and absolved of past sins. It resembles, in theme and tone, the figure of Saint Barbara in Barbara in Campin’s Werliece and the Virgin in Annunciation in an Annunciation by Robert Campin for a side of the Annunciation, attributed to his workshop in Brussels. Typically for the pose for the Magdalenes is similar to a. number of female religious figures painted by his workshop or workshop for his master Robert CampIn or his workshop for the side of Annunciation. In this fragment the semicircular outline of the Mag Dalene reinforces her quiet detachment from her surroundings. The view of a distant canal, with an archer atop the wall and a walking figure on the other side of a wall, whose reflection in water, shows the reflection of the water. The background of the Painting had been overpainted with a thick layer of brown paint. A cleaning between 1955 and 1956 revealed the figure standing behind the Magadalene and the kneeling figure with its bare foot protruding in front of her, with a landscape visible through a window. The two partially seen figures are both cut off at the edges of the London panel.
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This page is based on the article The Magdalen Reading published in Wikipedia (as of Oct. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
