Description
The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins contrasts careful preparation with distraction. Below, the wise women work and keep their lamps burning, while the foolish women dance to music and let theirs go out. Above, the consequences unfold around the bridegroom’s doorway: one group enters, while the other is refused. The image joins everyday activities to a larger religious narrative, making the contrast visible across two connected levels.
Philips Galle engraved the scene after Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s design around 1560–63, with Hieronymus Cock as publisher. Its meaning depends on how the eye moves between the lower activities and their outcome above. Detailed figures and architecture make the lesson accessible through recognizable actions. The print is both a moral image and a carefully organized story, with preparation, pleasure and the passing of time brought into a single field.
Read our guide to giclée prints or browse the Pieter Bruegel collection.
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