Magdalen Reading

The figure is shown with long, flowing reddish-blonde hair held by a pearl headband, wearing a green bodice with a yellow sleeve and a red mantle. She sits behind a dark ledge where an ornate ointment jar, her traditional attribute, is placed. In the background, a dark panel is flanked by two narrow views of a landscape, one featuring a prominent purple iris.

In the intellectual climate of Renaissance Florence, the Magdalene was often seen as the supreme exemplar of the 'Vita Contemplativa' (the contemplative life). Her transition from a worldly life to one of solitary study and divine love resonated with Neoplatonic ideals regarding the soul's ascent through contemplation and the rejection of material distractions.