The treatment of the subject is exactly the same as the rather similar work from the workshop of Ambrosius Benson. This composition was one of the artist’s most favoured subjects with several high quality repetitions. As is usually the case with Isenbrandt, there are subtle variations between each treatment of the subject. The artist continued to change the details of the clothes, jewellery and the exact positioning of the devotional book held by the Magdalen. Most pictures of this type were painted for private devotion and a large number have survived with examples by almost all the major artists of the period.

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