MASTER of Female Half-lengths
(active 1530-1540 in Antwerp)

Lady Writing at a Desk

1530s
Oil on panel, 39 x 25 cm
Private collection

At least seventeen variants have survived of this successful design. Virtually all of them show a fashionably attired lady turned to the right, writing at a table, with a window behind her to the left. Within this scheme the pictures differ widely in the details of the composition. The presence of the gilt cup and cover in the majority of versions led scholars to suggest that the young ladies represented the Magdalene.