The mystic marriage of Christ and the Church

The woman in the centre represents the Virgin Mary, mother of Christ and of the Church. The child standing to her right is Saint John the Baptist who represents the link between the Old and the New Testament as he is considered to be the last of the prophets and the first of the saints. The book is the Bible; the Lamb is the symbol of Christ, a lamb who is sacrificed but who conquers sin by his Resurrection.
The dating of this painting gives an explanation to understand it. It was painted shortly after the Council of Trent which ratified the reforms of the Catholic Church after the Protestant disputes. In this case, the old Church, or the bearded man, symbolises the Catholic Church before the reforms, while the kneeling woman symbolises the new Church reviving after the Council.