ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the dextrarum iunctio (joined right hands) portrait type in Roman art, its elaboration into a “wedding scene” that became a feature of Roman art from the Antonine period forward, and how married Christians adopted and adapted this iconography in ways that reflected their developing concept of marital concordia as a bond formed by deity, and expressed their self-understanding as citizens holding places of honor in the kingdom of God. These visual assertions found corresponding expression in the developing rituals of a nuptial blessing and a bride’s veiling ceremony, as well as in marriage-affirming Christian texts.
