Marten van Heemskerck, 'The Donor and Saint Mary Magdalene', about 1540

Mary Magdalene, statuesque and in a clinging red dress, rests the fingers of her right hand on the shoulder of a kneeling donor. In the other, she nonchalantly lifts a large golden vase, decorated with lions‘ heads and topped with a finial in the form of a nude woman. This is the pot containing the ointment she used to anoint Christ’s feet (Luke 7: 37).

Mary Magdalene was often shown richly dressed in medieval and Renaissance painting, and here she wears a circlet in her elaborately plaited hair, gold jewellery and a rope of pearls. In sharp contrast, the donor is a serious-looking middle-aged man dressed as a canon, with a white surplice over his black robes and a grey almuce (fur cape) over one arm. He appears to be both balding and tonsured.

The back of the panel is also decorated, and shows a bishop painted in tones of black, grey and white. In his left hand he holds a book in a chemise binding, while his right is raised in blessing. On the shaft of his crosier are three crowns, which suggests that the bishop might be Saint Louis of Toulouse, who when he became Bishop of Toulouse renounced the three kingdoms of Naples, Sicily and Jerusalem all previously held by his father. The saint was usually shown as a youth, but the artist who painted this picture may not have known much about him – he was not particularly celebrated or represented in the Low Countries. Beneath his feet is an unidentified coat of arms.

This is one of two shutters from a triptych, the central part of which is lost. We are not sure who or where they were made for, but the other wing, The Virgin and Saint John the Evangelist, also has an unidentified coat of arms. The coats are similar to those of the Hamal and Kersbeke families: the donor may have been a canon whose father was a Hamal and whose mother was a Kersbeke.

The panels are attributed to Marten van Heemskerck. They were probably painted in around 1540 after his return from Italy, as is clear from the antique drapery, jewellery and hairstyle of Mary Magdalene and her ’Grecian‘ profile. Van Heemskerck arrived in Rome in 1532, and both classical and contemporary Italian art had an enormous influence on his later work. After his return to Haarlem he received important commissions from both Haarlem and other Dutch cities, including an enormous triptych of the Passion (now in Linköping Cathedral), a Crucifixion scene (Museum of Fine Arts, Ghent) and a triptych with an ’Ecce Homo' in 1544 (National Museum, Warsaw). He also received commissions for portraits and religious paintings from private individuals.