Wallfahrt Mariae: The Marriage of the Virgin
13.3 cm x 9.5 cm (5 1/4 in. x 3 3/4 in.)
Medium and Support:
Blanton Museum of Art, The University of Texas at Austin, Archer M. Huntington Museum Fund, 1983
During the Middle Ages, the ideal life was one dedicated to learning, contemplation and spirituality. Marriage, with its mundane concerns and promise of sexual satisfaction, was deemed a distraction and was discouraged. It was not until the twelfth century that the pope made marriage a sacrament. The marriage of Mary and Joseph, understood to be chaste and celibate, was held up as a model for married couples.
Although the location of the ceremony is non-descript here, it bears noting that weddings were not usually performed inside a church. Because unions between two households signaled a redistribution of wealth in the form of a dowry and possibly a consolidation of political power, weddings were carried out at the door of the church in view of the communities they would affect. After banns, a church announcement of a forthcoming wedding, were read publicly, neighbors were invited to comment. Assuming there were no objections, the couple exchanged vows, then entered the church to celebrate mass.