In a painting by Bernardino Luini (c.1520) now shown in Seoul, two contrasting women — one lavishly dressed, the other modest and veiled — portray the moment Mary Magdalene decides to follow Jesus. Long misread as a simple allegory of vanity versus humility and even mistaken for a Leonardo da Vinci work because of its soft-edged, light-and-shadow technique called sfumato (스푸마토), research attributes the picture to Luini, a Milanese painter influenced by da Vinci. The modest woman holds an ointment jar (향유병), a Biblical attribute signifying Magdalene’s renunciation of worldly luxury. Donated to the San Diego Museum of Art in 1936, the painting invites viewers to choose which values to embrace rather than prescribing a moral verdict.
