"the Marriage Of The Virgin" Oil On Brass – 17th Cntury, Flemish Baroque

Oil on metal plate (brass), depicting The Marriage of the Virgin, a subject derived from apocryphal tradition and widely disseminated through the Golden Legend. The High Priest unites Mary and Joseph before the monumental architecture of the Temple, at the solemn moment when the ring is placed on Mary’s finger. Above, putti scatter flowers beneath the dove of the Holy Spirit. On the right, a group of young women attends the ceremony, while on the left stand the male witnesses and an acolyte holding a torch.
The scene alludes to the episode of Joseph’s flowering rod, a motif traditionally associated with this iconography in Western art.

The composition is both ceremonial and theatrical — with large red curtains, Corinthian columns and a perspectival tiled floor — and firmly rooted in 17th-century Flemish Baroque tradition.
The facial types, warm chromatic range and carefully structured architectural setting point to a production from the Southern Netherlands, shaped by Italian Renaissance models (notably Perugino and Raphael) transmitted through engravings and reinterpreted with the Flemish attention to detail, texture and pictorial richness.

Oil painting on a brass plate (copper-zinc alloy), a support appreciated in Flemish and Northern European painting for its smooth surface, allowing refined execution, precise drawing and luminous glazes.
The delicately modelled flesh tones, highlighted draperies and gilded accents benefit from the reflective qualities of the metal support.

Good overall presentation, with an old patina.
Minor surface wear, fine craquelure and discreet localized retouching, particularly near the large red curtain and along certain contours. Slight natural undulations inherent to the metal support.
Giltwood frame of later date, showing signs of age and use.

Flemish School, 17th century.
High-quality workshop production, representative of Baroque devotional painting in Flanders.

An artwork well suited for a sacred art collection, a collector’s cabinet, or an exhibition devoted to Marian iconography and Flemish Baroque painting.

Frame -  63 × 80 cm
Visible painting - 55 × 71 cm