ABSTRACT
A group of early sixteenth-century images of women, mostly produced in Bruges, Antwerp, and Brussels by artists such as Ambrosius Benson, Adriaen Isenbrant, Quentin Massys, Jan Gossart, Jan van Hemessen, and the Masters of the Female Half-lengths and of the Magdalene Legend, has long puzzled scholars (e.g., Plates 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, and Figures 3.5 and 4.3). The figures’ identification remains uncertain but, based on the consistent inclusion of what appear to be ointment jars, they are tentatively accepted as representing the Magdalene. Half-or threequarters length in a portrait-like format and set in either a plain or domestic setting, these young women most often appear in contemporary dress and read, play music, write, and/or open their jars; only rarely has one a halo. Scholars agree they derive from Rogier’s innovative Braque Triptych Magdalene (Plate 4).1 Although the triptych remained in the private hands of Catherine de Brabant’s descendants following her death, multiple drawn and painted copies of the Magdalene wing still exist, so versions likely were available to late fifteenth-and sixteenth-century artists.2 Besides repeating Rogier’s half-length portrait format, some of those versions include other of his motifs, such as background views of La SainteBaume and spreading maternity laces.
