Oil on a metal sheet (brass) depicting The Marriage of the Virgin. The High Priest joins Mary and Joseph before the Temple architecture at the very instant the ring is placed on Mary’s finger. Above, putti scatter flowers beneath the Dove of the Holy Spirit; to the right, a chorus of maidens witnesses the rite, while male attendants stand to the left, including an acolyte with a torch. The subject, rooted in apocryphal sources and popularized by the Golden Legend, often alludes to Joseph’s flowering rod, a motif commonly paired with this scene in Western art.
Style & context
The theatrical setting—crimson curtain, Corinthian columns and tiled floor in perspective—places the work within the Hispano-Flemish Baroque vocabulary still current around 1700. Facial types, warm palette and the balanced ceremonial arrangement reflect Spanish painting informed by Italian and Flemish models widely circulated in prints; the composition resonates with European treatments of the Sposalizio (Perugino, Raphael).
Support, materials & technique
Executed in oil on a brass plate—a metallic support valued in the Hispanic world for its luminous glazes and precise handling, in line with the broader European practice of painting on metal (most frequently copper) in the 16th–17th centuries. The smooth, reflective ground enhances highlights in the draperies and the delicate modelling of flesh tones.
Condition
Good decorative condition with aged patina. Minor surface wear, fine craquelure and small retouchings, notably near the red drapery and certain contours; slight planar undulations consistent with a metal support. Later gilt-wood frame with marks of age.
Attribution
Spanish school, late 17th – early 18th century (c. 1690–1710), workshop production of fine devotional quality within the Iberian Baroque tradition.
Display
A compelling addition to collections of sacred art, Marian iconography or Iberian Baroque painting.
Measurements
Frame: 63 × 80 cm
Painting: 55 × 71 cm