PERUGINO, Pietro
(b. 1450, Citta della Pieve, d. 1523, Perugia)

Marriage of the Virgin

1500-04
Oil on wood, 234 x 185
Musée des Beaux-Arts, Caen

Perugino painted his Marriage of the Virgin for a chapel in the cathedral in Perugia, which was completed in 1489, and in which the Virgin's engagement ring was kept. This valuable relic had been stolen from a church in Chiusi in 1478 and had only recently been retrieved, so it is not surprising that it takes pride of place in the centre of this picture.