Lot 12: Workshop of The Master of the Female Half Lengths (active 1500-1550)

A woman as the Magdalen writing at a table in an interior
oil on panel
42.2 x 30.6 cm. (16 3/8 x 12 in.)

The Hon Sydney Holland, 1898 (according to a label on the reverse).

Little is known about the anonymous Master of the Female Half-Lengths, except that the oeuvre is now thought to be in large part the product of a workshop and consists of mainly small scale panels depicting elegant women performing household tasks or Biblical themed works such as the present lot, where the inclusion of the ointment jar is a reference to Mary Magdalen (see Max Friedlander, Early Netherlandish Painting, XII, Leiden and Brussels, 1975).