Marriage

In 1785 the Duke of Rutland, an English collector, bought all seven of Poussin's Sacraments from a family in Rome. Rome restricted the export of important pictures, so the agent in the deal, the Scottish dealer James Byres, had copies made to hang in their place, and the originals travelled to England. This is Marriage, from that first series of seven, painted in the late 1630s for the scholar Cassiano dal Pozzo. Poussin shows the wedding of the Virgin Mary and Joseph. They join hands, kneeling before the priest, with the dove of the Holy Spirit above them and a hall of Corinthian columns around them. Bystanders stare at the flowers blooming on Joseph's staff, the sign that marked him out as her husband. The picture still belongs to a Rutland family trust, which lends it to the National Gallery.