抹大拉的马利亚

Frederick Sandys painted only one figure from the Bible in his whole career, and this is her. He worked on the small panel between 1858 and 1860, at the height of the Pre-Raphaelite years, when English painters were chasing sharp detail and rich, flat colour. Mary Magdalene stands against a green damask patterned like wallpaper, holding an alabaster jar of ointment. That jar is the clue to who she is. Tradition merged her with the sinful woman in Luke's Gospel who anointed Christ's feet, and the ointment became her emblem. Sandys was close to Rossetti and painted many striking women, but here he gave his attention to a religious subject rather than a beauty or a legend. He showed the panel in London in 1860 and never returned to a biblical theme again.