David Ghirlandaio, The Marriage of the Virgin

Circa 1479
Tempera and gold on wood
Metropolitan Museum of Art, 13.119.1, Francis L. Leland Fund

The officiant wears the horned headgear prescribed for a high priest but none of the other priestly garb. In the other images of this episode that I have examined, Mary always gives her right hand, as is expected in a marriage ceremony. But in this one it is her left. I cannot tell whether this is a compositional choice on the artist's part or an assertion regarding Mary's attitude to marriage.

This is one of three panels set in a single frame. The others are The Burial of St. Zenobius and Tobias and the Angel.

Read more about images of Mary's marriage to St. Joseph.

Photographed at the Metropolitan by Richard Stracke, shared under Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike license.