Plate Five, from Five Wise and Five Foolish Virgins
1606
Medium
Engraving on paper
Dimensions
Sheet, trimmed to platemark: 26.5 × 36.8 cm (10 7/16 × 14 1/2 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
40162
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Jan Saenredam was a Netherlandish engraver, draftsman, and mapmaker. This engraving series illustrates a parable from the book of Matthew (25:1–13). Plate four (1972.790) shows a bridegroom emerging from a doorway marked with a Christological sculpture of a lamb. He admits five wise virgins carrying full oil lamps into his wedding feast, a metaphor for heaven. Five foolish virgins, who have wasted their oil in frivolous pursuits, beg the wise virgins to lend them oil so that they may also enter....
About the Artist
Jan Saenredam · 1565–1607
Jan Pieterszoon Saenredam (c. 1565–1607) emerged from humble beginnings in the Dutch village of Assendelft, where he was orphaned young and raised by his uncle, the local bailiff Pieter de Jongh. Initially destined for basket weaving or farm work, Saenredam's precocious talent for embellishing texts with intricate designs caught attention, leading to an apprenticeship in cartography. By 1589, at a...