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The Magdalen Reading

Image credit: The National Gallery, London

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A woman, her hair covered by an elaborate structure of caps and semi-transparent veils, holds a luxurious illuminated book. The pot identifies her as Mary Magdalene: it holds the ointment with which the saint anointed Christ’s feet. The hands and book are copied from Saint Barbara in Gerard David’s The Virgin and Child with Saints and Donor. They are so close that it seems Ambrosius Benson copied from the original or that he had access to the preliminary drawings. He was a pupil of David, and the two were involved in a lawsuit about patterns which David alleged he had found in Benson’s chest. The folds of the veil are extremely close to Mary Magdalene’s headdress in The Magdalen in a Landscape by Albert Cornelis, from whom Benson borrowed patterns.

The National Gallery, London

London

Title

The Magdalen Reading

Date

about 1525

Medium

Oil on oak

Measurements

H 41 x W 36.2 cm

Accession number

NG655

Acquisition method

Bought, 1860

Work type

Painting

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Normally on display at

The National Gallery, London

Trafalgar Square, London, Greater London WC2N 5DN England

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