Ritual

Giandomenico Tiepolo
Punchinello's Father leading Home his Bride
ca. 1797
drawing
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

imitator of Martin Schongauer
The Matchmaker
18th century
engraving
(forgery)
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Rembrandt
Medea, or, The Marriage of Jason and Creusa
1648
drypoint
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Karl Probst
The Bride
1881
watercolor on paper
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Master of the Getty Froissart
Marriage of Louis of Blois and Marie de France
ca. 1480-83
tempera on vellum
(Froissart manuscript leaf)
Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Antonio Verrio
Marriage of the Virgin
ca. 1666-70
oil on canvas
Musée des Augustins de Toulouse

Luca Giordano
Marriage of the Virgin
ca. 1690
drawing
Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna

Paolo Veronese
Mystic Marriage of St Catherine
ca. 1560-65
oil on canvas
Musée Fabre, Montpellier

Anonymous Artist after Annibale Carracci
Mystic Marriage of St Catherine
ca. 1660
oil on canvas
Galleria Nazionale di Parma

Lorenzo Lotto
Mystic Marriage of St Catherine
ca. 1505-1508
oil on panel
Alte Pinakothek, Munich

Sassetta (Stefano di Giovanni)
Mystic Marriage of St Francis
ca. 1437-44
oil on panel
Musée Condé, Chantilly

Jørgen Roed
Sacred Staircase,
Monastery of San Benedetto near Subiaco
1857
oil on canvas
Nivaagaard Museum, Denmark

Aurèle Robert
The Baptistry, St Mark's Basilica, Venice
1842
oil on canvas
Alte Nationalgalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Laurent Pécheux
Purification of the Virgin
1770
oil on canvas
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon

Johann Wilhelm Baur
Jason and Medea at the Altar of Hecate
ca. 1650
etching
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Georg Pencz
Jason and Medea working Magic
1539
engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Charmion

     What must be done? 

Cleopatra                     Short ceremony, friends,

     But yet it must be decent. First, this laurel

     Shall crown my hero's head: he fell not basely,

     Nor left his shield behind him – Only thou

     Couldst triumph o'er thyself, and thou alone

     Wert worthy so to triumph.

Charmion                                To what end

     These ensigns of your pomp and royalty?

Cleopatra

     Dull that thou art! Why, 'tis to meet my love,

     As when I saw him first, on Cydnos' bank,

     All sparkling like a goddess, so adorned,

     I'll find him once again; my second spousals

     Shall match my first in glory. Haste, haste both,

     And dress the bride of Antony. 

Charmion                                     'Tis done.

Cleopatra

     Now seat me by my lord, I claim this place,

     For I must conquer Caesar too, like him,

     And win my share o'th'world. Hail, you dear relics

     Of my immortal love!

     Oh, let no impious hand remove you hence,

     But rest forever here. Let Egypt give

     His death that peace which it denied his life.

     Reach me the casket.

Iras                                Underneath the fruit

     The aspic lies.

Cleopatra putting aside the leaves

                             Welcome, thou kind deceiver!

     Thou best of thieves, who, with an easy key,

     Dost open life, and unperceived by us,

     Even steal us from ourselves; discharging so

     Death's dreadful office better than himself;

     Touching our limbs so gently into slumber

     That Death stands by, deceived by his own image,

     And thinks himself but Sleep.

– John Dryden, All for Love (1677)