The Marriage of the Virgin (Raphael)
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''The Marriage of the Virgin'', also known as ''Lo Sposalizio'', is an
oil painting Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...
by the Italian
High Renaissance In art history, the High Renaissance was a short period of the most exceptional artistic production in the Italian states, particularly Rome, capital of the Papal States, and in Florence, during the Italian Renaissance. Most art historians stat ...
artist
Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...
. Completed in 1504 for the
Franciscan The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...
church of San Francesco, Città di Castello, the painting depicts a marriage ceremony between
Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...
and
Joseph Joseph is a common male given name, derived from the Hebrew Yosef (יוֹסֵף). "Joseph" is used, along with "Josef", mostly in English, French and partially German languages. This spelling is also found as a variant in the languages of the mo ...
. It changed hands several times before settling in 1806 at the
Pinacoteca di Brera The Pinacoteca di Brera ("Brera Art Gallery") is the main public gallery for paintings in Milan, Italy. It contains one of the foremost collections of Italian paintings from the 13th to the 20th century, an outgrowth of the cultural program of ...
.


History

In the later years of the 15th century, patrons in
Citta di Castello ''Citta'' (Pali and Sanskrit: चित्त; pronounced ''chitta''; IAST: ''citta)'' is one of three overlapping terms used in the '' nikaya'' to refer to the mind, the others being '' manas'' and '' viññāṇa''. Each is sometimes used i ...
sent three commissions to Raphael's teacher
Pietro Perugino Pietro Perugino (, ; – 1523), born Pietro Vannucci, was an Italian Renaissance Painting, painter of the Umbrian school, who developed some of the qualities that found classic expression in the High Renaissance. Raphael was his most famous pup ...
which, in Perugino's absence, were completed by Raphael.McCurdy (1917), p. 84. ''The Marriage of the Virgin'', featuring the theme of the
Marriage of the Virgin The Marriage of the Virgin is the subject in Christian art depicting the marriage of the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The marriage is not mentioned in the canonical Gospels but is covered in several apocryphal sources and in later redactions, no ...
, was the last of these. Evidently inspired by one of Perugino's paintings, also known as ''
Marriage of the Virgin The Marriage of the Virgin is the subject in Christian art depicting the marriage of the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The marriage is not mentioned in the canonical Gospels but is covered in several apocryphal sources and in later redactions, no ...
'', Raphael finished his own work, according to the date placed next to his signature, in 1504.Champlin and Perkins (1913), p. 380. This particular piece was commissioned by one Filippo degli Albezzini to hang in a church dedicated to Saint Francis.McCurdy (1917), p. 90. It remained in its original home until General
Giuseppe Lechi Giuseppe ("Joseph") Lechi (5 December 1766 – 9 August 1836) was an Italian general in the Kingdom of Italy during the Napoleonic Wars. Biography Born in Aspes and being the first son of Faustino Lechi and his wife Doralice Bielli, the genera ...
led forces to Città di Castello to liberate it from Austrian occupation, when the painting was gifted to (or perhaps demanded by) the general.Champlin and Perkins (1913), p. 381.Hoeniger (2005), 297. "Restoring Raphael" in the ''Cambridge Companion to Raphael'' (2005) reports that the painting remained with Lechi to his death in 1804, but Lechi died in 1836. The ''Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings'' states rather that Lechi sold the piece in 1801 to one Giacomo Sannazaro, who himself sold the piece in 1804 to the
Ospedale Maggiore The Policlinico of Milan ( it, Policlinico di Milano) also known as Ospedale Maggiore di Milano or Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, is one of the oldest hospitals in Italy, founded by Duke Francesco Sforza in 1456. Today it is a modern ...
in Milan. By whatever means it arrived there, it was in the possession of the hospital for a short time, as in 1806 the hospital sold it to the Italian state for 53,000
franc The franc is any of various units of currency. One franc is typically divided into 100 centimes. The name is said to derive from the Latin inscription ''francorum rex'' (Style of the French sovereign, King of the Franks) used on early France, ...
s. It has since then been displayed in the Pinacoteca di Brera, in spite of an 1859 proposal to donate the image to France after that country's army had entered Milan. Through these various relocations, the painting was damaged. The panel had several cracks in the upper half, while there was rippling and bowing throughout. Italian artist
Giuseppe Molteni Giuseppe Molteni (Affori, Milan, 1800 – Milan, 1867) was an Italian painter. Biography Forced to abandon his studies at the Brera Academy for financial reasons, Molteni took up the restoration of ancient paintings as a pupil of Giuseppe Guizz ...
, retained to repair it in November 1857, chose to preserve the panel rather than transfer the painting to canvas and spent months flattening the panel and hydrating it to overcome the damage of
desiccation Desiccation () is the state of extreme dryness, or the process of extreme drying. A desiccant is a hygroscopic (attracts and holds water) substance that induces or sustains such a state in its local vicinity in a moderately sealed container. ...
. This decision on the part of Molteni has permitted 20th-century art historians to use
infrared Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...
reflectography to study the
underdrawing Underdrawing is a preparatory drawing done on a painting ground before paint is applied, for example, an imprimatura or an underpainting. Underdrawing was used extensively by 15th century painters like Jan van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden. These ...
beneath the completed art work. Molteni also undertook to clean the surface of the painting, which had been subjected to restoration before. He did not clean aggressively, as he wanted to be sure that elements of the original painting were preserved. The ''Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings'' indicates that the painting is "somewhat discoloured."


Analysis and influence

There have been several historians who have disputed that Perugino's ''Marriage of the Virgin'' preceded Raphael's, and some who have suggested the painting was not Perugino's at all but instead produced after Raphael's by one of Perugino's followers. However, a 16th century documentary evidence supports the conclusion that Perugino had begun working on the painting in 1499, though it was not completed until some point after December 26, 1503. Although Raphael was heavily inspired by Perugino in painting the piece, differences of the two were remarked upon within decades of the painting's completion by 16th-century Italian artist and art biographer
Giorgio Vasari Giorgio Vasari (, also , ; 30 July 1511 – 27 June 1574) was an Italian Renaissance Master, who worked as a painter, architect, engineer, writer, and historian, who is best known for his work ''The Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculpt ...
, who said that in the piece "may be distinctly seen the progress of excellence of Raphael's style, which becomes much more subtle and refined, and surpasses the manner of Pietro. In this work," he continued, "there is a temple drawn in perspective with such evident care that it is marvellous to behold the difficulty of the problems which he has there set himself to solve." It is very likely that the domed building in the background of both Perugino's and Raphael's works, which represents the
Temple of Jerusalem The Temple in Jerusalem, or alternatively the Holy Temple (; , ), refers to the two now-destroyed religious structures that served as the central places of worship for Israelites and Jews on the modern-day Temple Mount in the Old City of Jerusa ...
, portraits the Temples as a Renaissance version of the Dome of the Rock. ''The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance,'' Jacob Burckhardt, Peter Murray, James C. Palmes, University of Chicago Press, 1986, p. 81
Franz Liszt Franz Liszt, in modern usage ''Liszt Ferenc'' . Liszt's Hungarian passport spelled his given name as "Ferencz". An orthographic reform of the Hungarian language in 1922 (which was 36 years after Liszt's death) changed the letter "cz" to simpl ...
wrote a composition for solo piano based on Raphael's painting with the title "
Sposalizio :''The painting which inspired this piece of music is also sometimes called the Sposalizio; for it, see Sposalizio (painting).'' Sposalizio is the title of the first piece in Franz Liszt's '' Deuxième Année de Pèlerinage: Italie'' (Second Year ...
" in his
Années de pèlerinage ''Années de pèlerinage'' (French for ''Years of Pilgrimage'') ( S.160, S.161, S.162, S.163) is a set of three suites for solo piano by Franz Liszt. Much of it derives from his earlier work, ''Album d'un voyageur'', his first major published pian ...
(Deuxième année: Italie).


See also

*
List of paintings by Raphael The following is a list of paintings by Italian Renaissance painter Raphael. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period. He was enormously prolific, despite his early death at ...
*
Sprezzatura ''Sprezzatura'' () is an Italian word that first appears in Baldassare Castiglione's 1528 '' The Book of the Courtier'', where it is defined by the author as "a certain nonchalance, so as to conceal all art and make whatever one does or says appea ...
* ''The Marriage of the Virgin'' (Michelino da Besozzo)


Notes


References

*''Raffaello e Brera'', exh. cat. ed. by C. Bertelli and M. Olivari, (Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera), Milan 1984 *''Raffaello. Lo Sposalizio della Vergine restaurato'', exh. cat. ed. by E. Daffra and M. Ceriana, Milan 2009 * * * * *


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Marriage Of The Virgin (Raphael)
Marriage of the Virgin The Marriage of the Virgin is the subject in Christian art depicting the marriage of the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The marriage is not mentioned in the canonical Gospels but is covered in several apocryphal sources and in later redactions, no ...
Marriage of the Virgin The Marriage of the Virgin is the subject in Christian art depicting the marriage of the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The marriage is not mentioned in the canonical Gospels but is covered in several apocryphal sources and in later redactions, no ...
Paintings in the collection of the Pinacoteca di Brera
Raphael Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, better known as Raphael (; or ; March 28 or April 6, 1483April 6, 1520), was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. List of works by Raphael, His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of ...