Mary Magdalen

Gossart’s Magdalen dates to the end of his career, when he became quite interested in placing his figures in crowded stone architectural settings. In addition, Gossart’s increasingly mannered attempts to reference marble sculpture by accentuating the three-dimensionality of his figures and the porcelain-like, polished surfaces of heads and hands is especially characteristic of his output in the late 1520s until his death in 1532. He crafted elaborate details and luminous surfaces in the Netherlandish tradition, but he also introduced classical elements such as the antique-inspired urn that foreshadows Mary’s anointment of Christ’s feet.