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.

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.

[4] The original altarpiece was a sacra conversazione,[5][6] 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.

[9] Mary is shown by van der Weyden as youthful, sitting in quiet piety with her head tilted and eyes modestly averted from the viewer.

[11] Van der Weyden often linked form and meaning, and in this fragment the semicircular outline of the Magdalene reinforces her quiet detachment from her surroundings.

[13] Van der Weyden's pose for the Magdalene is similar to a number of female religious figures painted by his master Robert Campin or his workshop.

[11] Art critic Charles Darwent observed that the Magdalen's past as a "fallen woman" is hinted at by the nap in the fur lining of her dress and the few strands of hair loose from her veil.

[19] Many of the objects around her are also closely detailed, in particular the wooden floor and nails, the folds of the Magdalene's dress, the costume of the figures in the exterior and the beads of Joseph's rosary.

[13] Lorne Campbell describes the tiny figure of the woman seen through the window and her reflection in the water as "small miracles of painting", and says that "the attention to detail far exceeds that of Jan van Eyck and the skill of execution is astounding".

[22] Virgin and Child with Saints,[23] a drawing in Stockholm's Nationalmuseum, is believed to be a study of a portion of the original altarpiece by a follower of van der Weyden,[24] who possibly may have been the Master of the Coburger Rundblätter.

The drawing has a loosely sketched background and shows, from left to right: an unidentified bishop saint with mitre and crosier making a blessing gesture; a narrow gap with a few wavy vertical lines suggesting a start at the outline of a further kneeling figure; a barefoot bearded figure in a rough robe identified as Saint John the Baptist; a seated Virgin holding on her lap the Christ Child who leans to the right, looking at a book; and holding the book, a kneeling beardless male identified as John the Evangelist.

Campbell believes that after the removal of the background detail "it looked sufficiently like a genre piece to hang in a well-known collection of Dutch seventeenth-century paintings".

The figure may represent Saint Catherine of Alexandria, and from both the angle of her cloth and the fact that the river behind her would be parallel to that in the exterior of the London panel it can be assumed that she was kneeling.

[24] Some art historians, including Martin Davies and John Ward,[29] have been slow to allow the Catherine panel as part of the altarpiece, though it is undoubtedly by van der Weyden or a near-contemporary follower.

[30] The Stockholm drawing contains a narrow blank gap to the right of the bishop with a few indistinct lines that could represent the lower profile of the kneeling figure of Saint Catherine.

Although none of the faces in the three surviving panels match any in the drawing, a 1971 reconstruction by art historian John Ward—which combined all of the works into a composition of a central Virgin and Child flanked by six saints—is widely accepted.

The Stockholm drawing's original location or history before the 19th century is unknown, except that the verso shows a surviving carving of the Virgin and Child attributed to a Brussels workshop from about 1440.

[31] Van der Weyden's depiction of the Magdalen is based on Mary of Bethany,[9][33] identified by the time of Pope Gregory I as the repentant prostitute of Luke 7:36–50.

Early Renaissance artists often conveyed this idea by portraying contemplative eyes, associating tears with words, and in turn weeping with reading.

Examples can be seen in 16th-century works by Tintoretto and Titian which show the Magdalen reading, often with her eyes averted towards her book (and presumably away from a male gaze), or looking up to the heavens or, sometimes, glancing coyly towards the viewer.

[39] By the 13th century she acquired the imagery of a once-shamed woman who, clothed in long hair, now hid her nakedness in exile and "borne by angels, floats between heaven and earth".

[45] Art historian John Ward notes that the altarpiece was one of van der Weyden's first masterpieces, created early in his career when he was still heavily influenced by Robert Campin.

Conversely, when a number of pieces considered either by van der Weyden or assistants under his supervision were cleaned in the mid- to late 20th century, his hand or direct influence was disproved,[47] or in the case of the Magdalen, associated with other images whose attribution had been uncertain.

[49] After passing to the Nieuwenhuys brothers, who were leading dealers in art of the early Netherlandish period, it moved to the collector Edmond Beaucousin[49] in Paris, whose "small but choice" collection of early Netherlandish paintings was purchased for the National Gallery, London by Charles Lock Eastlake in 1860; an acquisition that also included two Robert Campin portraits and panels by Simon Marmion (1425–1489).

[53] The Magdalen Reading was transferred from its original oak to a mahogany panel (West Indian swietenia)[54] by unknown craftsmen sometime between 1828 and when the National Gallery acquired it in 1860.

Rogier van der Weyden , The Magdalen Reading , 62.2 cm × 54.4 cm (24.5 in × 21.4 in). c. 1435–1438. Oil on mahogany, transferred from another panel. National Gallery , London. [ 1 ]
Detail showing the face and veil of Mary Magdalene painted in pure whites. The eyebrows and eyelids have been plucked in accordance with conventional ideals of beauty at the time. [ 8 ]
Detail showing the prayer book, likely a book of hours , decorated with white cloth and gold clasps.
Detail showing the jar and row of nails on the timber floor at the lower right corner of the panel. Note the attention paid to the gilded clasp and fall of the shadow.
Head of Saint Joseph (fragment). 21 cm × 18 cm (8.3 in × 7.1 in). Museu Calouste Gulbenkian , Lisbon. This panel is thought to show Saint Joseph , whose body is visible to his upper arm in The Magdalen Reading .
Head of a Female Saint (Saint Catherine?) (fragment). 21 cm × 18 cm (8.3 in × 7.1 in). Museu Calouste Gulbenkian , Lisbon. A possible representation of Saint Catherine of Alexandria , it is of lower quality than the other two known fragments, indicating that it was probably completed by members of van der Weyden's workshop.
Cropped 1930s black and white photograph of the panel before it was cleaned of the overpaint. [ 27 ] The reasons for the overpainting and the breaking up of the altarpiece are unknown.
Detail from Descent from the Cross , c. 1435. Here van der Weyden portrays the tears and partially visible eyes of Mary of Clopas . [ 32 ]
Robert Campin 's Mérode Altarpiece or Annunciation Triptych , (centre panel), c 1427–1432, Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York; The Cloisters . The figure of the Virgin is close to van der Weyden's London Magdalen.
The Stockholm drawing, attributed to the Master of the Coburger Rundblätter, likely shows the portion of the altarpiece to the left of the Magdalen. The kneeling figure to the far right is probably Saint John the Evangelist , some of whose red drapery can be seen in the London fragment. [ 43 ] Mary's position on the lower right hand corner (out of view) is guessed at by Ward from van der Weyden's positioning of similar figures in other works. [ 44 ]