The Master of the Female Half-Lengths was a Netherlandish painter, perhaps a group, working in the area of Antwerp in the first half of the sixteenth century. He, or they, appears to have trained in Joachim Patinir

Joachim Patinir

Joachim Patinir, also called de Patiner , was a Flemish Northern Renaissance history and landscape painter from the area of modern Wallonia...

's workshop in that city. Rather than being a single artist, it is believed that the Master was actually a studio

Studio

A studio is an artist's or worker's workroom, or the catchall term for an artist and his or her employees who work within that studio. This can be for the purpose of architecture, painting, pottery , sculpture, scrapbooking, photography, graphic design, filmmaking, animation, radio or television...

, specializing in small panel paintings of young aristocrat

Aristocracy (class)

The aristocracy are people considered to be in the highest social class in a society which has or once had a political system of Aristocracy. Aristocrats possess hereditary titles granted by a monarch, which once granted them feudal or legal privileges, or deriving, as in Ancient Greece and India,...

ic ladies. The subjects were in half-length and devotional scenes, hence the name. They are engaged in various pursuits, such as reading, writing, and playing musical instruments; the interiors in which they are depicted usually are panelled in wood, although sometimes the backdrop is neutral. Some are shown with a jar of ointment, traditionally a symbol of Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene

Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...

.

Although the Master was based in Antwerp, similarities have been seen between his work and that of the Bruges

Bruges

Bruges is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is located in the northwest of the country....

 artists Ambrosius Benson

Ambrosius Benson

Ambrosius Benson was an Italian painter who became a part of the Northern Renaissance.While many surviving paintings have been attributed, there is very little known of him from records, and he tended not to sign his work. He is believed to be responsible for mainly religious art, but also painted...

 and Adriaen Isenbrant

Adriaen Isenbrant

Adriaen Isenbrandt or Adrien, Isenbrant, Ysenbrant, Ysenbrandt or Hysebrant , was a Flemish Northern Renaissance painter, who from documentary evidence was clearly a significant artist of his period, but to whom no specific works can be clearly documented...

. There is a painting by this painter in the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art is an art museum in Kansas City, Missouri, known for its neoclassical architecture and extensive collection of Asian art....

 in Kansas City, Missouri ("Penitent Saint Jerome

Saint Jerome

Saint Jerome is a Christian church father, best known for translating the Bible into Latin.Saint Jerome may also refer to:*Jerome of Pavia , Bishop of Pavia...

in Wilderness").