_Raffaelle's Sposalizio_ (Vol. vii., p. 595.; Vol. viii., p. 61.).--The
reason why the ring is placed on {575} the third finger of the right hand
of the Blessed Virgin in Raffaelle's "Sposalizio" at Milan, and in
Ghirlandais's frescoe of the same subject in the Santa Croce at Florence,
is to be found in the fact that the right hand has always been considered
the hand of power or dignity, and the left hand of inferiority or
subjection. A married woman always wears her ring on the third finger of
the left hand to signify her subjection to her husband. But it has been
customary among artists to represent the Blessed Virgin with the ring on
the right hand, to signify her superiority to St. Joseph from her
surpassing dignity of Mother of God. Still she is not always represented
so, for in Beato Angelico's painting of the marriage of Mary and Joseph she
receives the ring on her left hand. See woodcut in Mrs. Jameson's _Legends
of Madonna_, p. 170. In the Marriage of the Blessed Virgin by Vanloo, in
the Louvre, she also receives the ring on the left hand. Giotto, Taddeo
Gaddi, Perugino, &c., have painted the "Sposalizio," but I have not copies
by me to refer to.