Pietà with Saint Mary Magdalene

Notice which way the light falls, from the right, across the dead Christ and the two women holding him. That is the wrong side for Bronzino, who almost always lit his figures from the left. The reason lies in the wall this panel was made for. It was an altarpiece for the Cambi family chapel in the church of Santa Trinita in Florence, and the painted light was set to match the real light from the chapel's own window, so the two would seem to share one source. Bronzino was still young when he did this, around 1529, near the start of a career soon spent almost entirely on Medici portraits. Mary Magdalene leans in at the right, her face close to Christ's hand, and it is her figure that carries that borrowed daylight into the scene.