The Marriage of the Virgin

Michelino Molinari da Besozzo's The Marriage of the Virgin, dated around 1435 and now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, depicts the apocryphal ceremony in which the Virgin Mary is betrothed to Joseph at the Temple in Jerusalem — an event not in the Gospels but described in the Protoevangelium of James and widely depicted in late medieval and Renaissance art. Michelino was the leading court painter in Milan under the Visconti, and his late work shows the persistence of the International Gothic elegance he had cultivated across a long career, even as Florentine Renaissance naturalism was transforming painting further south. The Metropolitan panel demonstrates his continued refinement of figure and color.

Michelino employs the gold ground with his characteristic palette of pale, luminous tones: creamy whites, soft pinks, and silvery blues. Figures are gracefully elongated with the sinuous linear quality of his mature style. The high priest joining the hands of Mary and Joseph provides the compositional focus.