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

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.