Abraham Bosse
French, 1602-1676
Plate One, from The Wise and Foolish Virgins, plate One
INV-2667
Abraham Bosse
French, 1602-16761635
Plate One, from The Wise and Foolish Virgins, plate One
Abraham Bosse French, 1602-1676 →etchingprint
Date
1635
Medium
Engraving and etching on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image: 25.8 × 32.2 cm (10 3/16 × 12 11/16 in.); Sheet: 33 × 43.2 cm (13 × 17 1/16 in.)
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Location
Chicago, IL
Credit
Mr. and Mrs. Potter Palmer Collection, Stickney Collection, and Print Sales Miscellaneous Fund
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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