Marsilio Cassotti e sua noiva 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.