The Wise and Foolish Virgins
Jacopo Tintoretto (Venice 1518 - Venice 1594)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
circa 1546
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
824 x 995 x 23 mm
Place of origin
Venice
Order this imageCollection
Upton House, Warwickshire
NT 446823
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, The Wise and Foolish Virgins by Jacopo Tintoretto (1518-1594), circa 1546. The bridegroom, attended by five wise virgins, leans from a balcony above a hall or courtyard and addresses the five foolish virgins who appeal for admission from below; to their left is a kitchen and in the background a double colonnade, surmounted by arms with a palle, where three figures are visible; above, two rooms open from the balcony, a ballroom in the centre with dancing couples, and left, a dining room where a servant is laying a table; two musicians stand at the extreme right of the balcony. Pentimenti in paved floor. Normally, the unusual iconography of this scene (Matthew XXV.11) is made explicit where a foolish virgin carries a banderole on which is written, ‘Signore, Signore, apretici’, and a wise virgin carries another inscribed ‘In verita vidicho io non vi conochio’. The banderoles do not appear on the Upton House picture, but analysis shows they were once part of the composition. Tintoretto may have made a conscious choice to remove them, or it could have been a later intervention by a picture dealer wanting to make the picture easier to sell. On balance the latter scenario is more likely.
Provenance
Robert Napier of Shandon sale, Christie’s, 13 April 1877, lot 394, as by Veronese: bought by Cox; anonymous sale, Sotheby’s, 18 May 1938, lot 74: bought by Buttery, from whom acquired by Lord Bearsted; given with Upton House to the National Trust by Walter Samuel, 2nd Viscount Bearsted (1882 – 1948), in 1948, shortly before his death
Makers and roles
Jacopo Tintoretto (Venice 1518 - Venice 1594), artist
References
Echols 1996 R.Echols, ‘Tintoretto, ‘Christ at the Sea of Galilee and the Unknown later career of Lambert Sustris’, Venezia Cinquecento, IV, n.12, 1996, pp.111-13, 120, 124, 131-2, 134, 148 (n.101) & fig.5.
