Mary Magdalene Comforted by an Angel

Mary Magdalene, her long golden hair and pale skin set off by draped robes in lilac and teal, rests her arm on a gray rock and holds a tall, thin cross, while an angel with white wings and a detailed red-and-gold garment leans toward her from the other side of the rock, a small chalice and a closed book between them on the ground — dark trees at the left, rolling green and blue hills under a bright sky with fluffy clouds at the right. Claude Vignon, the prolific French painter of the Romanized Baroque, signed this panel “Vignon Jn f 1626” during the years when his vivid colour and loose, energetic handling made him one of the most admired French masters of his generation. The panel remained in private French collections — in Mayenne and Versailles — until the Galerie de La Scala in Paris sold it in 2006 to Jeffrey E. Horvitz, who gave it to the National Gallery of Art in 2017. The painting is held in the National Gallery of Art, Washington.