XI

THE BETROTHAL OF THE VIRGIN

THERE is no distinct notice of this event in the apocryphal Gospel: the traditional representation of it is nearly always more or less similar. Lord Lindsay’s account of the composition before us is as follows:-

“The high priest, standing in front of the altar, joins their hands; behind the Virgin stand her bridesmaids; behind St. Joseph the unsuccessful suitors, one of whom steps forward to strike him, and another breaks his rod on his knee. Joseph bears his own rod, on the flower of which the Holy Spirit rests in the semblance of a dove.”¹

The development of this subject by Perugino (for Raffaelle’s picture in the Brera is little more than a modified copy of Perugino’s, now at Caen²) is well known; but not-withstanding all its beauty, there is not, I think, anything in the action of the disappointed suitors so perfectly true or touching as that of the youth breaking his rod in this composition of Giotto’s; nor is there among any of the figures the expression of solemn earnestness and intentness on the event which is marked among the attendants here, and in the countenances of the officiating priests.

¹ [Christian Art, vol. ii. p. 187.]

² [For another reference to Raphael’s “Sposalizio” and Perugino’s at Caen, see Vol. VIII. p. 196; and for Raphael’s, see also Vol. XIV. p. 74, and Vol. XXIII. p. 343.]

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[Version 0.04: March 2008]