Coming in hot. Time is short. Are you storing up oil?

Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins

c. 1616

Oil on canvas, 111 x 172 cm

The Hermitage, St. Petersburg

The paintings Hieronymus Francken II have often been confused with those of his younger brother, Frans II, because of their similarities in style.

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.