The marriage of Mary

Pacher's Marriage of Mary panel depicts the apocryphal episode from the Protevangelium of James in which Joseph is chosen as Mary's husband through the miraculous flowering of his rod, before the high priest in the Temple. The subject was standard in Marian altarpiece cycles and Pacher presumably included it within a larger programme of Mary's life. His version is distinguished by the architectural Temple setting — an elaborate Gothic hall rendered with his characteristic perspectival sophistication — rather than the simpler outdoor settings favoured by many contemporaries.

The Temple interior recedes through a series of pointed arches whose foreshortening Pacher handles with the confident spatial intelligence drawn from Mantegna. Joseph's flowering rod is rendered with careful botanical detail against the deep crimson of his robe, while the rejected suitors in the foreground display varied poses of disappointment.