Maria Madalena

By the time Carlo Crivelli painted this, gold-ground pictures like it were already old-fashioned. Florence had spent decades learning to paint deep space and solid bodies, but Crivelli worked away in the provincial towns of the Marche, on the Adriatic coast, and kept the glittering International Gothic manner alive to the end of the century. His Mary Magdalen stands against flat gold, holding the jar of ointment that identifies her from the Gospel story. She is dressed less like a penitent than like a rich woman of Crivelli's own day, in brocade and pale gold curls. Look closely at her jewels and the tooled halo: Crivelli built some of that ornament up in raised plaster and then gilded it, so the surface actually stands proud of the panel and catches real light.