The Digitalisation Project Castle Huis Bergh is the intellectual property of the Stichting Musick’s Monument. Ing Hans Meijer was responsible for the technical realisation; Dr Willem Kuiper for the scholarly input. Thanks are also due to the Anjer Cultuurfonds Gelderland; the Stichting de Verenigde Stichtingen “De Armenkorf” in Terborg and “Het Gasthuis te Silvolde”; Mrs P. Tijdink-Hermsen; Mrs L.J.C. Meijer-Kroonder; and the Giese family.
Panel
Segna, Niccolo di (2nd half 14th century) ltaly, Siena
St Mary Magdalene
1335-1340
Sienese painting
Provenance: Otto Lanz. Previously, Colonel Ettone Castelfranco, Florence
The delicate features of the person depicted here indicate that the panel is the work of a Sienese painter. We have here a portrait of Mary Magdalene, identified by the Western church with the unnamed woman who, according to the gospel of Luke once washed Jesus feet and massaged them with expensive ointment. The painter has portrayed her carrying a small jar, the one in which she kept her ointment. Mary holds the object manibus velatis, with covered hands, which means that it is holy or extremely precious. The jar and the red dress are both characteristic of Mary Magdalene. The woman has a truly oriental face, but the strange colour of her complexion is caused by paint decay; the underlayer of green paint that artists used for the depiction of a human body radiance through the thin top layer of paint. This small panel must have originally been part of a large altarpiece or polyptich, together with another panel in the Castle Bergh collection, depicting James the Elder.
