ARTWORKS

The Marriage of the Virgin

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (1617–1682)

The Wallace Collection

The Marriage of the Virgin

Image credit: The Wallace Collection

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This painting depicts the episode in the 'Golden Legend' and the 'Apocryphal New Testament' when the widower Joseph’s staff blossomed, a sign from Heaven that he was chosen from among Mary’s suitors to be her husband. The apocryphal Book of James relates that a Dove, symbolising the Holy Spirit, came forth from the staff and alighted on Joseph’s head (cf. Champaigne P119). Murillo sets the scene in a rich architectural interior and lessens the disparity between Mary and Joseph’s ages by portraying Joseph as a handsome young man. His approach is self-consciously attractive, with his use of colour betraying the influence of Rubens (q.v.) and Veronese. This picture, dateable c.1660–1670, hung in the Palacio Real, Madrid in the eighteenth century.

The Wallace Collection

London

Read more on The Wallace Collection
Title

The Marriage of the Virgin

Date

c.1660–c.1670

Medium

oil on mahogany panel

Measurements

H 106 x W 90 cm

Accession number

P14

Acquisition method

acquired by Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford, 1848; bequeathed to the nation by Lady Wallace, 1897

Work type

Painting

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The Wallace Collection

Hertford House, Manchester Square, London, Greater London W1U 3BN England

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Artist or maker

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

1617–1682

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