Master of the Legend of the Magdalen

His Notname (name of convenience) was coined by the art historian Max Friedländer and is derived from a large, now-dispersed polyptych with scenes from the life of Mary Magdalene.

The Master produced many portraits of the members of the Burgundian court, including Mary of Burgundy and her children, Philip the Fair and Margaret of Austria.

[3] Max Friedländer had proposed Pieter van Coninxloo and William Scrots as possible identifications for the Master, as both artists were active at the Burgundian court in Brussels around the same time and there are stylistic similarities with their works.

Art historian Maquet-Tombu subsequently reconstructed the polyptych, adding four further works: Portrait of a donor with Saint Louis and Christ as a gardener and Portrait of a female donor with her daughter, and Saints Mary Magdalene and Margaret (both Staatliches Museum Schwerin), Magdalene Washing the Feet of Christ (Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest)) and The Raising of Lazarus (National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen).

[8] They were originally thought to depict Mary of Burgundy under the guise of the Magdalen, but it is now believed that the sitter was in fact her daughter, Margaret of Austria, Duchess of Savoy (born 1480).

[7] The pose of the sitter appears to be derived from the Magdalen in the left panel of Rogier van der Weyden's Triptych of the Braque family (Louvre).

The jar of ointment which she holds was the usual attribute of the Magdalen, as she has often been identified with the woman in a story from the Gospels who anointed Jesus' feet with expensive perfume and then wiped them clean with her hair.