The marriage of Mary

According to the Golden Legend, the medieval book of saints' lives, the high priest in Jerusalem told every marriageable man of King David's line to bring a rod to the Temple, and Mary was to marry the one whose rod burst into leaf. That man was Joseph. Michael Pacher painted the moment in the 1490s for an altarpiece of the Virgin in Salzburg, his last commission. Joseph grips his rod, a slender green stem sprouting leaves at the tip. The high priest, in a jewelled mitre and a gold brocade cope, raises one hand in blessing and with the other brings the couple's hands together. Mary lowers her eyes. The Temple has become a Gothic church of Pacher's own day, with ribbed vaults and tall piers. Behind the couple a crowd of young men and women pushes in to watch.