A young woman with long, golden hair cascading over her shoulders sits in the foreground, her hands delicately crossed and her gaze lifted toward a patch of bright sky breaking through dark, swirling clouds. She wears a luminous white garment with voluminous sleeves, the fabric rendered in loose, expressive brushstrokes that catch the light, while a dark mantle wraps around her shoulders and falls into deep folds. The entire scene is bathed in a dramatic, almost supernatural light that falls strongest on the woman's face and hands, leaving the background in shadow and lending the composition an intense emotional charge.

The sky above churns with stormy blues and greys, pierced by a single opening of radiant white, painted in rapid, swirling strokes that echo the emotional turbulence of the figure below. The skull and vessel rest together in the lower right corner, their surfaces catching a faint reflection of light against the surrounding darkness. The background to the left of the woman is dominated by deep blue and grey tones, with swirling, almost abstract cloud forms.

The lower left corner of the painting is filled by the dark, shadowed mass of the woman's mantle, which blends into the background. The light falls most intensely on the upper left of the woman's chest and the top of her right arm, creating sharp contrasts with the shaded folds of her garment. The woman's hair is painted with long, undulating lines of gold and ochre, standing out against the dark backdrop and her white sleeve.

Fine, almost transparent layers of paint are visible in the rendering of the white fabric, especially where it meets the illuminated edge of her collar. The style is characteristic of Mannerism, with elongated forms, heightened emotion, and a dramatic use of color and light. The brushwork varies from the smooth modeling of the Magdalene’s skin to the agitated, almost abstract handling of the clouds and the highlights on her garment.