Where Is The Portinari Altarpiece, St. Mary Magdalen and

Q: Where can I see the Portinari Altarpiece?

The complete triptych is displayed at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. When it arrived in Florence in 1483, it caused a sensation and deeply influenced Italian Renaissance artists including Domenico Ghirlandaio.

Q: What artistic style does this represent?

Van der Goes was a master of Northern Renaissance painting, known for his detailed realism and oil technique. He deliberately used medieval scale hierarchy, making the saints larger than the human donors to emphasize their spiritual importance.

Flemish artist Hugo van der Goes painted this right wing of the Portinari Altarpiece around 1475-1478, showing the donor's wife Maria Baroncelli Portinari kneeling with her daughter Margherita. Behind them stand their towering patron saints: Mary Magdalene holding her characteristic jar of ointment, and Saint Margaret trampling the dragon.

The saints deliberately appear larger than the donors, following a medieval hierarchy of scale that Van der Goes employed despite his mastery of Renaissance techniques. Mary Magdalene wears an elegant hairstyle with a shaved forehead, while Margaret bears a garland of pearls symbolizing chastity. The complete triptych now resides at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, where it profoundly influenced Italian Renaissance painting.

Tommaso Portinari, a wealthy Florentine banker working for the Medici in Bruges, commissioned this altarpiece around 1475. This right wing shows his wife Maria Baroncelli and their daughter Margherita with their patron saints Mary Magdalene and Margaret.

The complete triptych is displayed at the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy. When it arrived in Florence in 1483, it caused a sensation and deeply influenced Italian Renaissance artists including Domenico Ghirlandaio.

Van der Goes was a master of Northern Renaissance painting, known for his detailed realism and oil technique. He deliberately used medieval scale hierarchy, making the saints larger than the human donors to emphasize their spiritual importance.

The Portinari Altarpiece, St. Mary Magdalen and St. Margaret with Maria Baroncelli and Daughter Margherita Portinari, Right Wing

Where to See It

The Artist

More by Hugo van der Goes

Portinari Triptych (detail)

Portinari Triptych

Death of the Virgin

Virgin and Child With St. Anne and a Franciscan donor

Also at Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Landscape drawing for Santa Maria della Neve

Primavera

The Discovery of the Body of Holofernes

Thebaid

Related Northern Renaissance Works

Self-Portrait at Twenty-Eight

The Annunciation

Arnolfini Portrait

Adam and Eve

Ghent Altarpiece

Portrait of Albrecht Dürer the Elder

Christ as the Man of Sorrows

Alliance Coat of Arms

About The Portinari Altarpiece, St. Mary Magdalen and St. Margaret with Maria Baroncelli and Daughter Margherita Portinari, Right Wing

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