Art Institute of Chicago

Plate One, from The Wise and Foolish Virgins, plate One

Abraham Bosse

Date

1635

Medium

Engraving and etching on ivory laid paper

Culture

France

Department

Prints and Drawings

Institution

Art Institute of Chicago

This etching offers a modernized take on Christ’s parable of the ten wise and foolish virgins who awaited the arrival of a bridegroom to his wedding. Here the five wise virgins have saved the oil for their lamps, for which they will be rewarded by being invited to the wedding. Abraham Bosse reinforced the social value of such bourgeois domesticity through symbolic spatial construction. The ideally spiritual and literate young women discuss religious tomes but blend into the ornamental wall tapestries between bright, open windows. The foreground Bible, crucifix, and unlit oil lamps form the base of a hidden cross composed of the altar, mantel, and biblical paintings on the wall.

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