The Marriage of the Virgin (Raphael)
| The Marriage of the Virgin | |
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| Artist | Raphael |
| Year | 1504 |
| Type | Oil on roundheaded panel |
| Dimensions | 174 cm × 121 cm (69 in × 48 in) |
| Location | Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan |
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 Raphael, Marriage of the Virgin, Smarthistory
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The Marriage of the Virgin, also known as Lo Sposalizio, is an oil painting by the Italian High Renaissance artist Raphael. Completed in 1504 for the Franciscan church of San Francesco, Città di Castello, the painting depicts a marriage ceremony between Mary and Joseph. It changed hands several times before settling in 1806 at the Pinacoteca di Brera.
In the early years of the 15th century, patrons in Citta di Castello sent three commissions to Raphael's teacher Pietro Perugino which, in Perugino's absence, were completed by Raphael.The Marriage of the Virgin was the last of these. Evidently inspired by one of Perugino's paintings, also known as Marriage of the Virgin, Raphael completed his own work, according to the date placed next to his signature, in 1504. There have been several historians who have disputed that Perugino's painting 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, but 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.
This particular piece was commissioned by one Filippo degli Albezzini to hang in a church dedicated to Saint Francis. It remained in its original home until General Giuseppe Lechi led forces to Città di Castello to liberate it from Austrian occupation, when the painting was gifted to (or perhaps demanded by) the general. "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 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 francs. 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.
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Wikipedia