Marsilio Cassotti and His Bride Faustina

Lotto signed and dated this 1523, in Bergamo, and it is often called the first proper marriage portrait made in Italy. Marsilio Cassotti, son of a wealthy cloth merchant, slides a ring onto Faustina's finger. Behind the couple, a small winged Cupid leans in and lowers a wooden yoke across both their shoulders. That is a joke you have to hear in Italian. The word for marriage, coniugium, carries the sense of being placed under a yoke together, and a sprig of laurel grows from the wood as a wish for lasting virtue. The groom's father commissioned the picture for the wedding. Lotto first asked 30 denari for the work, and the family talked him down to 20.