"Virginity and wedlock"

"THE Mother of the Lord being both espoused and a virgin, both virginity and wedlock are honored in her person, in contradiction to those heretics who disparaged one or the other."

~St. Thomas Aquinas: S.T. III, q. 29, a. 1.

The Ghent Altarpiece: Virgin Mary (detail), by Jan van Eyck.
Oil on wood, 1426-29; Cathedral of St. Bavo, Ghent.