Saint Mary Magdalene, with an Angel [left panel]

Pietro Lorenzetti

National Gallery of Art

Shown from the hips up, a woman holds an ivory-white, cylindrical jar against a gold background on a panel shaped to come to a sharp point at the top of this vertical painting. The pale skin of the woman is faintly tinted with green. Her body faces us, and she looks at or past us with wide, hooded, light brown eyes under faint brows. She has a long, straight nose, and her pink bow-shaped lips are closed. The woman wears a tomato-red mantle that covers her head and drapes down past her shoulders and over her matching dress. Locks of blond hair show under the mantle on the sides of her face. Bands of geometric designs made with black lines decorate the edges of her mantle and the neckline of her dress. The woman holds her left hand under the jar and her right hand holds onto its peaked lid. A disk-like halo with a floral pattern is incised into the gold background behind the woman. Above the woman, narrow molding affixed to the panel creates a rounded but pointed arch set under the sharp point at the top of the panel. Between the arch and the triangular tip, an angel with harvest-gold wings and blond hair is shown from the chest up. The angel’s body faces us but the head is in profile to our right. A narrow palm frond is held by one shoulder, and a butter-yellow cloth drapes over a cardinal-red gown. The surface of the painting is cracked and chipped, especially in the gold areas.