 The Magdalen Reading is one of three surviving fragments of a large mid @-@ 15th @-@ century oil on panel altarpiece by the Early Netherlandish painter Rogier van der Weyden . The panel , originally oak , was completed some time between 1435 and 1438 and has been in the National Gallery , London since 1860 . It shows a woman with the pale skin , high cheek bones and oval eyelids typical of the <unk> portraits of noble women of the period . She is identifiable as the Magdalen from the jar of <unk> placed in the foreground , which is her traditional attribute in Christian art . She is presented as completely absorbed in her reading , a model of the contemplative life , repentant and <unk> of past sins . In Catholic tradition the Magdalen was <unk> with both Mary of Bethany who <unk> the feet of Jesus with oil and the unnamed " sinner " of Luke 7 : 36 – 50 . Iconography of the Magdalen commonly shows her with a book , in a moment of reflection , in tears , or with eyes averted . Van der Weyden pays close attention to detail in many passages , in particular the folds and cloth of the woman 's dress , the rock crystal of the rosary beads held by the figure standing over her , and the <unk> of the exterior . 
