Joseph slips a ring onto Mary's finger before the high priest, flanked by her companions and the rejected suitors. The 21-year-old Raphael based this altarpiece for San Francesco in Città di Castello on a composition by his teacher Perugino, then surpassed it: the domed, many-sided temple behind sets the whole piazza into clear, measured space.
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A disappointed suitor snaps his barren rod across his knee in the foreground. Raphael signed and dated the temple frieze: RAPHAEL VRBINAS MDIIII.
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