This painting of the Virgin and Child with the Magdalene harks back to traditional iconography of Mary Magdalene. Whilst traditionally shown with the ointment with which she bathes Christ's feet, Magdalene's luxuriant uncovered hair is another symbol of her identity. This is in contrast to the Virgin Mary's covered head. Mary Magdalene is shown kissing the feet of the Christ Child which serves as a precursor to later events; in the Gospel of Luke it is reported that she washes Christ's feet and dries them with her own hair and, later on, she is reported to stand at Christ's feet at his crucifixion. This painting is known to have hung in the Old College of Blairs from the mid-1800s and may well have been a private devotional painting in John Menzies own private chapel in the late eighteenth century.