O casamento da Virgem

Luca Giordano worked so fast that Naples nicknamed him Luca fa presto, Luke works quickly, and by the 1680s he was the most sought-after painter in the city. He made this Marriage of the Virgin around 1688 as one of a set of scenes from the life of Mary, painted for the queen's rooms in the royal palace in Madrid. A few years later, in 1692, the Spanish king Charles II summoned Giordano to Spain itself, where he stayed for a decade covering palace ceilings. This canvas and its companion, an Adoration of the Shepherds from the same series, both ended up in the Louvre. Mary and Joseph are joined at the centre by the high priest as onlookers crowd the temple steps.