Sainte Baume

The retable that once adorned the high altar of the St. Mary Magdalen’s church in Madalena do Mar on the island of Madeira, now at the Museu de Arte Sacra do Funchal, has drawn our attention because of its similarities with a triptych’s shutter preserved in Brussels. The study of these two pictures reveals that the landscape in both paintings, showing a precise view of the Sainte-Baume’s site (Var), is inspired by the same source. This fact brings the Funchal’s painting closer to the work of an Antwerp artist, the Master of 1518. Posthumous order of a Madeiran lady, the panel that probably contains an implicit portrait of its commissioner also informs us about the specific requests that could be addressed to an Antwerp workshop by a wealthy and sometimes geographically distant clientele in the first half of the sixteenth century.