PD Image: The Wedding of Peleus and Thetis (1638), oil on canvas painting by Dutch painter Abraham Bloemaert (1564-1651), dimensions 193.7 cm x 164.5 cm (76.26 in x 64.76 in), located at the Royal Picture Gallery Mauritshuis, The Hague, The Netherlands.
Public Domain Photo: Lt. Kelly Lanning and his new wife, Megan O'Brien, enjoy a Pedi Cab ride following their wedding, New York, June 11, 2009.
Lt. Kelly Lanning and his new wife, Megan O'Brien, enjoy a Pedi Cab ride following their wedding ceremony on Military Island in Times Square. They joined four other military couples pledging their love and commitment for each other as well as the country in a ceremony covered widely by the New York media. A small number of family and friends were on hand to witness the ceremony coordinated by WE TV and the USO of Metropolitan New York.
Public Domain Image: Simson, an der Hochzeitstafel das Rätsel aufgebend (a 1638 painting depicting Samson's marriage feast in which he delivers the puzzle), oil on canvas painting by Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (1606-1669), dimensions 126.5 cm x 175.5 cm, located at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, Germany.
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When Samson (also spelled as Shimshon, Simson, Shamshoun or Sampson) grows up to adulthood, he leaves his hills people to see the cities of the Philistines, where he falls in love with a Philistine woman and he decides to marry her. On the way to her house to ask for the woman's hand in marriage, Samson is attacked by a lion but he easily grabs it and rips it apart as he is blessed with divine powers, and reaches the Philistine's house and wins her hand in marriage. On his way to the wedding, Samson notices that bees have nested in the carcass of the lion and have made honey. He drinks some honey and gives some to his parents. At the wedding feast, Samson offers the puzzle, "Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet", to his thirty Philistine groomsmen, and promises them thirty pieces of fine linen and garments, if they can solve it. The puzzle relates to his eating honey, on his second encounter with the lion (carcass). Failed and infuriated, the 30 Philistines tell Samson's wife to discover the answer and tell them, and threatens to burn her and her father's household if she does not do so. On the tearful imploring of his bride, Samson tells her the solution, which she reveals to the thirty groomsmen.
PD Photo: Richard M. Nixon escorts daughter Tricia Nixon down the aisle at her wedding to Edward Finch Cox
Tricia Nixon married Edward Finch Cox in a White House Rose Garden ceremony on 12 June 1971. Since then she has lived a private life, staying home taking care of her son Christopher Nixon Cox who was born in March 1979. She and her husband Edward Finch Cox, a corporate attorney, live just off Fifth Avenue in Manhattan.
Patricia Nixon Cox, aka Tricia Nixon, born on 21 February 1946, is the elder daughter of the 37th U.S. President Richard M. Nixon and First Lady Pat Nixon, and is sister to Julie Nixon Eisenhower. Currently Tricia Nixon serves on the boards of several medical research institutions, the Richard Nixon Foundation, and the Nixon Center in Washington D.C.
Photo: ‘Husband and Wife Trees (Blackthorn species trees) at Lynncraigs Farm, Dalry, North Ayrshire, Scotland, photo of 5 August 2009 by Roger Griffith.
PD Image: The Marriage of the Virgin by Pietro Perugino (1500-1504), oil on wood painting, dimensions 234 cm x 185 cm.
The Marriage of the Virgin, the painting by the Italian Renaissance master Pietro Perugino (1446-1524), housed in the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Caen, France, was initially commissioned to Pinturicchio for the cathedral of Perugia. In 1797, the painting was captured and taken to Caen by Napoleon.
The wide perspective of the composition, with a polygonal temple and the aligned composition of the figures on the sides, is related to the Perugino's painting ‘Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter’ at the Sistine Chapel. Perugino's most famous pupil Raphael painted his own version of The Marriage of the Virgin in 1504, and most critics say Raphael’s work is heavily influenced by this painting and Christ Giving the Keys to St. Peter.
Image: The Marriage of the Virgin (1504), painting by Raphael, oil on round-headed panel, dimensions 170 cm x 118 cm, located at Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan, Italy.
The Marriage of the Virgin, the 1504 painting by the Italian painter Raphael, is housed in the Pinacoteca di Brera of Milan. According to critics, the painting was inspired by two compositions by Perugino, ‘Christ Delivering the Keys to St. Peter’ and ‘The Marriage of the Virgin’ now in the Museum of Caën.
The main characters of ‘The Marriage of the Virgin’ stand in the foreground: Joseph is solemnly placing the marriage ring on the Virgin's finger and holding the flowering staff, the symbol that he is the chosen one, in his left hand. His wooden staff has blossomed, while those of the other suitors have remained dry. Two of the disappointed suitors are breaking their staffs. The polygonal temple in the background dominates the composition of the painting. The temple is the centre of a radial system composed of the steps, portico, buttresses and drum and extended by the pavement.
Caught at the culminating moment of the marriage ceremony, the people attending the wedding also repeat the circular rhythm of the composition. The three main characters and two members of the marriage party are set in the foreground, while others are arranged in depth, progressively farther away from the central axis. This axis, marked by the wedding ring, divides the paved surface and the temple into two symmetrical parts.
The painting (signed and dated: RAPHAEL URBINAS MDIIII) was commissioned by the Albizzini family for the chapel of St Joseph in the church of S. Francesco of the Minorities at Città di Castello in Umbria. In 1798 the town was forced to donate the painting to General Giuseppe Lechi, an army officer, who sold it to the Milanese art dealer Sannazzari, who bequeathed it to the main hospital of Milan in 1804. Two years later it was acquired by the Academy of Fine Arts and was exhibited at the Brera.
The painting was attacked by vandals some years ago. The signed and dated painting, ‘The Marriage of the Virgin’ by Raphael is a particularly beloved painting by Raphael and one of the unparalleled favorites of the Renaissance period. The painting is specially noted because Raphael made the transition from a devoted follower of Perugino to an artist who represents the epitome of the Renaissance. Also, this painting is of special importance because it was executed immediately before Raphael went to Florence where he experienced firsthand the sculpture of Donatello as well as the works of his most famous older contemporaries, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo.
Painting: The Penitent Mary Magdalene by Francesco Hayez (1791-1882), Italian painter and leading artist of Romanticism in mid-19th-century Milan, renowned for his grand historical paintings, political allegories and exceptionally fine portraits. Details: Year - 1825; Technique - oil on canvas; Dimensions - 118 x 150 cm (46.46 x 59.06 in); Current location - Civica Galleria d'Arte Moderna; Source - The Yorck Project: 10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei.
A few modern writers have claimed that Mary Magdalene was married Jesus, quoting Gnostic writings to support their arguments. Extra-biblical sources like the apocryphal Gospel of Philip depict Mary Magdalene as being closer to Jesus than any other disciples.
Mary Magdalene is mentioned as one of the three Mary’s ‘who always walked with the Lord’ and as his companion (Philip 59.6-11). Gospel of Philip also says that the Lord loved her more than all other disciples, and used to kiss her often (63.34-36). But Kripal writes ‘the historical sources are simply too contradictory and simultaneously too silent’ to make absolute declarations regarding Jesus' sexuality. On the other hand, the historian John Dickson argues that it was a common custom ‘in early Christianity to kiss a fellow believer by way of greeting, and as such kissing would have no romantic connotations’.
The theory that Mary Magdalene was the wife of Jesus Christ was propagated by books such as The Jesus Scroll (1972), Holy Blood, Holy Grail (1982), The Gospel According to Jesus Christ (1991), The Woman with the Alabaster Jar (1993), Bloodline of the Holy Grail: The Hidden Lineage of Jesus Revealed (1996), The Da Vinci Code (2003), and Jesus the Man (2006).
