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The picture shows one of the series engravings entitled "The Wise and Foolish Virgin". The subject was very popular in medieval painting and sculpture.
The parable of the wise and foolish virgins is taken from the Bible (Matt. 25:1-13). The virgins are the maids of honour who, according to eastern wedding custom, accompanied the bride to the house of the groom. Five of the ten maids had imprudently failed to provide themselves with oil. When the groom arrived at midnight the five wise virgins entered the house, but the foolish, who had meanwhile gone to buy oil, returned later to find the door closed against them. By this parable Christ was warning his listeners to be in a state of preparedness for the Second Coming whose hour could not be foretold.
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