Mary Magdalene

Entry

St Mary Magdalene wears a mantle with amply draped folds over her slender bodice. Thick, long locks of hair emerge from the bourrelet on her head. The lengthy liripipe winds its way down via her right shoulder, falling into her left hand halfway up with its end extending to the level of the knees. Only her attribute betrays her conversion to a new way of life: the ointment jar, the lid of which she raises with her right hand.

This figure typifies the late-medieval trend of depicting saints – especially Mary Magdalene, renowned for her ‘worldly’ past – as prominent members of society clad in rich, contemporary attire.¹ Comparable in type, though artistically far superior, is a statue of a sumptuously dressed St Barbara in the church of Onze-Lieve-Vrouw ter Rijke Klaren in Brussels, made locally around 1520.² The present figure also originates from that city, as is confirmed by the presence of the Brussels wood quality mark: a mallet.

Given its modest scale and flat reverse side, this figure was likely intended for an altarpiece. It has been carved from a working block that comprises two high-quality oak planks – also known as wainscot – glued and nailed together. Sawn with the tree rings aligned perpendicular to the lumber (quarter-sawn), wainscot planks are less susceptible to warping and splitting, making them an ideal medium for wood-carved sculptures exposed to changing climate conditions, e.g. during long-distance transport.³ The use of wainscot therefore possibly suggests the present statuette was intended for the export market. Brabantine woodcarvings, especially in the form of retables, were dispersed across much of Europe via the port of Antwerp, with Scandinavia, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Poland and France being the chief selling markets.

Bieke van der Mark, 2024