Saint Mary of Egypt

A slender figure stands in profile, her body entirely shrouded by her exceptionally long, reddish-brown hair which serves as her only clothing. Her hands are joined in prayer and her gaze is directed upward, while her bare feet rest on a dark ground. The background features a repeating gold lattice pattern of crosses against a black field.

Mary of Egypt represents the radical tradition of eremiticism and the 'vita contemplativa,' or the life of solitary contemplation. Her story of extreme physical renunciation and spiritual transformation in the desert was a foundational narrative for the mystical tradition that influenced later Renaissance concepts of the soul's ascent toward the divine.