Description
In the later years of the 15th century, patrons in Citta di Castello sent three commissions to Raphael’s teacher Pietro Perugino which, in Perugino’s absence, were completed by Raphael. The Marriage of the Virgin, featuring the theme of the Marriage of the Virgin, was the last of these. Evidently inspired by one of Perugino’s paintings, also known as Marriage of the Virgin, Raphael finished his own work, according to the date placed next to his signature, in 1504.
This particular piece was commissioned by one Filippo degli Albezzini to hang in a church dedicated to Saint Francis. It remained in its original home until General Giuseppe Lechi led forces to Città di Castello to liberate it from Austrian occupation, when the painting was gifted to (or perhaps demanded by) the general. “Restoring Raphael” in the Cambridge Companion to Raphael (2005) reports that the painting remained with Lechi to his death in 1804, but Lechi died in 1836. The Cyclopedia of Painters and Paintings states rather that Lechi sold the piece in 1801 to one Giacomo Sannazaro, who himself sold the piece in 1804 to the Ospedale Maggiore in Milan. By whatever means it arrived there, it was in the possession of the hospital for a short time, as in 1806 the hospital sold it to the Italian state for 53,000 francs. It has since then been displayed in the Pinacoteca di Brera, in spite of an 1859 proposal to donate the image to France after that country’s army had entered Milan.
Bibliography
The Marriage of the Virgin (Raphael), https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Marriage_of_the_Virgin_(Raphael)&oldid=1102355633 (last visited Aug. 9, 2022).
