At the death of the Florentine master Giotto in 1337, Bernardo Daddi became one of the most active painters in early fourteenth-century Florence. Daddi's San Pancrazio Altarpiece, of which this panel was a part, was incredibly influential for large-scale altarpiece painting in that city. The scale of Daddi's altarpiece was no doubt inspired by the multi-tiered altarpieces painted for Florentine churches by the Sienese artist, Ugolino di Nerio (documented 1317-27; died probably 1329).

This altarpiece was exceptionally elaborate, consisting of seven main panels, pinnacles, and a predella. The predella is the row of panels which make up the lowest tier of an altarpiece, often formed of narrative scenes, or standing figures, which relate to the subject matter above. The Marriage of the Virgin was part of a predella which told the story of the early life of the Virgin. 

Taken from either the apocryphal Gospel of James, or Jacobus de Voragine's The Golden Legend, this panel shows the moment in which the Priest joins the hands of Joseph and the Virgin Mary in marriage. Each of the Virgin's suitors had been instructed to bring a rod to the Temple. Of these, it is Joseph's rod that flowers and onto which the Holy Spirit descends, signalling that he has been chosen. The disappointed, unsuccessful suitors jostle and break their rods.