The Espousals of the Blessed Virgin Mary or Marriage of the Virgin Mary is a Christian feast is celebrated by certain parts of the Roman Catholic Church such as the Oblates of Saint Joseph. It was formerly generally observed on January 23, but was removed from many local calendars by the Sacred Congregation of Rites.
In Matthew 1:16, Joseph is described as the husband of Mary. It is probable that Joseph and Mary were betrothed in Nazareth. [1] The term "betrothal" indicates more than an engagement. It was customary in that time and place to celebrate marriage in two stages, the first being the contractual arrangements culminating in consent or "betrothal". After a period of around one year in which the couple were preparing for conjugal living, the second stage of actually conveying the wife to their new home would be accompanied by a great feast such as the Marriage Feast at Cana recounted in the John 2:1-11. [2]
The first definite knowledge of a feast in honour of the espousals of Mary dates from August 29, 1517, when with nine other Masses in honour of Mary, it was granted by Leo X to the Nuns of the Annunciation, founded by Saint Jeanne de Valois. [3] In certain particular churches the espousals of the Virgin Mary and St. Joseph are honoured with an office on January 23. [4] The Oblates of St. Joseph celebrate January 23 as the feast of “The Holy Spouses Mary and Joseph”. [5]
Gaspar Bertoni, founder of the Stigmatines, chose Mary and Joseph, in the context of their espousals, as patrons of the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata. [6]
In art the subject can be covered in several different scenes, and the betrothal of Mary, with Joseph's blossoming rod, is often shown. Wedding processions are also shown, especially in the Early Medieval period. The scene, or scenes, is a common component in larger cycles of the Life of the Virgin and thus very frequently found, especially in the Middle Ages; it is not found in the typical cycle in a Book of hours.
The marriage scene has been painted by, among others, Giotto, Perugino, Raphael, Domenico Ghirlandaio (1485–90, at the Tornabuoni Chapel), Bernardo Daddi (now in the Royal Collection), Veronese (in San Polo church, Venice), and Pieter van Lint (1640, Antwerp Cathedral). The subject is depicted in a fresco in the German Chapel at the Shrine of the Holy House in Loretto, Italy; [7] in a sculpture in the left portico of Sagrada Família Basilica in Barcelona, Spain; [8] and in a stained glass window at St. Rita Basilica, Cascia, Italy. [9]
Domenico di Tommaso Curradi di Doffo Bigordi, professionally known as Domenico Ghirlandaio, also spelt as Ghirlandajo, was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Florence. Ghirlandaio was part of the so-called "third generation" of the Florentine Renaissance, along with Verrocchio, the Pollaiolo brothers and Sandro Botticelli. Ghirlandaio led a large and efficient workshop that included his brothers Davide Ghirlandaio and Benedetto Ghirlandaio, his brother-in-law Bastiano Mainardi from San Gimignano, and later his son Ridolfo Ghirlandaio. Many apprentices passed through Ghirlandaio's workshop, including the famous Michelangelo. His particular talent lay in his ability to posit depictions of contemporary life and portraits of contemporary people within the context of religious narratives, bringing him great popularity and many large commissions.
Filippino Lippi was an Italian painter working in Florence, Italy during the later years of the Early Renaissance and first few years of the High Renaissance.
Santa Maria Novella is a church in Florence, Italy, situated opposite, and lending its name to, the city's main railway station. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city's principal Dominican church.
The Adoration of the Shepherds, in the Nativity of Jesus in art, is a scene in which shepherds are near witnesses to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, arriving soon after the actual birth. It is often combined in art with the Adoration of the Magi, in which case it is typically just referred to by the latter title. The Annunciation to the Shepherds, when they are summoned by an angel to the scene, is a distinct subject.
The Oblates of the Virgin Mary is a religious institute of priests and brothers founded by Bruno Lanteri (1759–1830) in the Kingdom of Sardinia in the early 19th century. The institute is characterized by a zeal for the work of preaching and the sacrament of confession, according to the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius of Loyola and the moral theology of St. Alphonsus Liguori. It is also marked by love for Mary and fidelity to the magisterium.
The Stigmatines officially named the Congregation of the Sacred Stigmata is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men. The Stigmatine Congregation was founded on November 4, 1816 by Gaspar Bertoni, in Verona, Italy. Its members use the post-nominals C.S.S..
Florentine painting or the Florentine School refers to artists in, from, or influenced by the naturalistic style developed in Florence in the 14th century, largely through the efforts of Giotto di Bondone, and in the 15th century the leading school of Western painting. Some of the best known painters of the earlier Florentine School are Fra Angelico, Botticelli, Filippo Lippi, the Ghirlandaio family, Masolino, and Masaccio.
The Sassetti Chapel is a chapel in the basilica of Santa Trinita in Florence, Italy. It is especially notable for its frescoes of the Stories of St. Francis, considered Domenico Ghirlandaio's masterwork.
Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi is a Renaissance-style Roman Catholic church and a former convent located in Borgo Pinti in central Florence, Italy.
Italian Renaissance painting is the painting of the period beginning in the late 13th century and flourishing from the early 15th to late 16th centuries, occurring in the Italian Peninsula, which was at that time divided into many political states, some independent but others controlled by external powers. The painters of Renaissance Italy, although often attached to particular courts and with loyalties to particular towns, nonetheless wandered the length and breadth of Italy, often occupying a diplomatic status and disseminating artistic and philosophical ideas.
This article about the development of themes in Italian Renaissance painting is an extension to the article Italian Renaissance painting, for which it provides additional pictures with commentary. The works encompassed are from Giotto in the early 14th century to Michelangelo's Last Judgement of the 1530s.
The Tornabuoni Chapel is the main chapel in the church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy. It is famous for the extensive and well-preserved fresco cycle on its walls, one of the most complete in the city, which was created by Domenico Ghirlandaio and his workshop between 1485 and 1490.
Giovanni Tornabuoni was an Italian merchant, banker and patron of the arts from Florence.
Biagio d’Antonio Tucci was an Italian Renaissance painter active in Florence, Faenza and Rome.
The Life of the Virgin, showing narrative scenes from the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, is a common subject for pictorial cycles in Christian art, often complementing, or forming part of, a cycle on the Life of Christ. In both cases the number of scenes shown varies greatly with the space available. Works may be in any medium: frescoed church walls and series of old master prints have many of the fullest cycles, but panel painting, stained glass, illuminated manuscripts, tapestries, stone sculptures and ivory carvings have many examples.
The Marriage of the Virgin is the subject in Christian art depicting the marriage of the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The wedding ceremony is not mentioned in the canonical Gospels but is covered in several apocryphal sources and in later redactions, notably the 14th-century compilation the Golden Legend. Unlike many other scenes in Life of the Virgin cycles, it is not a feast in the church calendar, though it sometimes has been in the past.
Joseph was a 1st-century Jewish man of Nazareth who, according to the canonical Gospels, was married to Mary, the mother of Jesus, and was the legal father of Jesus.
The Baptism of Christ is a fresco by the Italian Renaissance painter Pietro Perugino and his workshop, executed around 1482 and located in the Sistine Chapel, Rome.
Nera Corsi was a noble Italian woman of the dynasty Corsi and Francesco Sassetti's only wife. Her tomb, located in the Sassetti Chapel of Santa Trinita in Florence, is the only female tomb in Florence for a married woman in the 15th century.
