Mary Magdalene (Sandys)

Mary Magdalene

Artist	Anthony Frederick Augustus Sandys
Year	ca. 1858-60
Type	Oil on panel
Dimensions	33.5 cm × 28 cm (13 1/4 in × 11 in)
Location	Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, Delaware

Mary Magdalene is a Pre-Raphaelite painting by Frederick Sandys. Mary Magdalene was the only character from the Bible that Sandys ever painted. Having sharp features reminiscent of Lizzie Siddal (though the model is unknown),^[1] Mary is depicted in front of a patterned forest-green damask. She holds an alabaster ointment cup, a traditional attribute which associates her with the anonymous sinful woman who anointed Jesus' feet in Luke 7:37. Like other Pre-Raphaelite painters, Frederick Sandys gave Magdalene a sensual look.

Dante Rossetti accused Sandys of plagiarism, because of the resemblance to his Mary Magdalene Leaving the House of Feasting,^[2] but when Rossetti came to paint Magdalene some twenty years later, it was his painting that resembled Sandys.^[1] Mary Magdalene was acquired in 1894 by Samuel Bancroft Jr., the most important American collector of Pre-Raphaelite art, whose family donated his collection to the Delaware Art Museum in 1935. Bancroft bought it from Charles Fairfax Murray, an artist in the Pre-Raphaelite circle.

It has been exhibited, as part of a touring exhibition of the Bancroft Collection, at the Saint Louis Art Museum, San Diego Museum of Art, the Frick Art & Historical Center, Pittsburgh, Nottingham Castle and other locations. It was once featured in an oversize advertisement in the San Antonio International Airport.^[3]

Notes

1. ^ ^{a b} "Shadowlight: The Pre-Raphaelite Goddess". http://shadowlight.gydja.com/preraphaelite.html. Retrieved 2007-10-02. 
2. ^ The watercolor, dated 1857, is at the Tate Gallery; it was exhibited at the Walker Art Gallery.
3. ^ "Delaware Art Museum". Archived from the original on 2007-06-26. http://web.archive.org/web/20070626143551/http://www.delart.org/view/collections/pr_home.html. Retrieved 2007-10-02. 

See also

• List of Pre-Raphaelite paintings
• Mary Magdalene, or Tears, Idle Tears