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. She is identifiable as the
Magdalen from the jar of ointment placed in the foreground, which is her traditional attribute in Christian art. She is presented as completely absorbed in her reading, a model of the contemplative life, repentant and absolved of past sins. 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.
Iconography of the Magdalen commonly shows her with a book, in a moment of reflection, in tears, or with eyes averted.
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 Magdalene 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. 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, while another Lisbon fragment, showing what is believed to be
Saint Catherine of Alexandria, is thought to be from the same larger work. 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. The drawing shows that
The Magdalen occupied the lower right-hand corner of the altarpiece. The Lisbon fragments are each a third of the size of
The Magdalen, which measures 62.2 cm × 54.4 cm (24.5 in × 21.4 in). (
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