The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 13, 2025

Mary Magdalene Presents Ointment to Jesus (folio 102 verso), from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier

1602–04

Mughal India, Allahabad, made for Prince Salim

(1569–1627)
Gum tempera, ink, color, and gold on paper
Sheet: 26.4 x 15.7 cm (10 3/8 x 6 3/16 in.); Image: 20.5 x 10.3 cm (8 1/16 x 4 1/16 in.)
John L. Severance Fund 2005.145.102.b
Location: Not on view

Did You Know?

Proportions of the portico and pavilion reveal some grasp of Renaissance ideals.

Description

While Jesus dined in the house of a Pharisee he was approached by Mary Magdalene, who threw herself to the ground and wept on Jesus’s feet with her tears. She then dried them with her hair and bathed them with expensive ointment. Her veil falls around her shoulders to reveal her hair’s disarray. Only Jesus appears to be calm as he extends his arms in a pacifying gesture; the other men point at their mouths and at each other, astonished at the dramatic behavior of this woman known to have been a prostitute. The plain black carpets and thin application of paint in some areas indicate that this painting was not finished.
  • before 1930s–2005
    An Indian family in Great Britain, whose grandfather brought the manuscript to England in the 1930s or 1940s
    2005
    (Oliver Forge and Brendan Lynch Ltd., London, England, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)
    2005–
    The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH
  • Carvalho, Pedro de Moura, and W. M. Thackston. Mirʼāt al-quds (Mirror of holiness): a life of Christ for Emperor Akbar: a commentary on Father Jerome Xavier's text and the miniatures of Cleveland Museum of Art, Acc. no. 2005.145. Leiden: Brill, 2012.
  • Prince Salim's Life of Christ (Manuscript Rotation) - Gallery 115. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (December 2, 2019-July 1, 2020).
    Art and Stories from Mughal India. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (July 31-October 23, 2016).
  • {{cite web|title=Mary Magdalene Presents Ointment to Jesus (folio 102 verso), from a Mirror of Holiness (Mir’at al-quds) of Father Jerome Xavier|url=false|author=|year=1602–04|access-date=13 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2005.145.102.b