Hulin de Loo, Georges: Early Flemish paintings in the Renders Collection at Bruges: exhibited at the Belgian Exhibition, Burlington House, January 1927 (London, 1927)

MEMLING. 35 SAINT MARY ' MAGDALEN 35 WING
35 Oal{ panel : 33,5 centimeters high by 26,5 centimeters wide. 35

THIS is perhaps the most charming of all the works,
belonging to this rich collection, which we have to
examine; softness of expression, refinement of colouring,
simplicity of pose, beauty of landscape, everything, in short,
unites to make of this page both a delight to the eye and a
dreamlike vision of tenderness and poetry, r-—-t-1-:--
35 Yet this entrancing Saint Mary - Magdalen is not an original
conception : the type was originated by Rogier in that famous
triptych of the Braque family, now in the Louvre; our panel
is an undoubted replica, and a very faithful one, except for
one or two slight differences, of one of the wings of that
ensemble. There is no doubt but that this replica was made
by a great artist who, deeply impressed by the very excellency
and depth of the original, and albeit faithfully reproducing the
model, could not help imparting to the head the mark of his
own personal temperament, t——*——t—■—r-{-r——
35 We can see that Rogier’s triptych was interpreted in the
sense of a somewhat languid sentimentality, softening the edges,
and rounding the angles of the implacable draughtsman, that
envelopes where the former engraves or sculptures; we are