Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index



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  • Title: Parable of Wise and Foolish Virgins
  • Creator:
  • Description: Christ stands on one side of a door with the Wise Virgins who are dressed entirely in white. All five women hold their lit torches upright in one hand and a jar full of lamp oil in the other. The river and fruit trees represent the garden of Paradise. Outside, trying in vain to enter, are the Foolish Virgins. Each woman wears a different colored robe. Only two of the five carry lit torches, and three hold their empty oil jars upside-down. Below this scene are bust-length images of four haloed Hebrew prophets. They point to the parable scene with one hand and in the other hold large phylacteries that obscure their lower halves. Above each prophet's head are the words of that respective prophet that foretell the parable. This image, and others like it in the Rossano Gospels, presents a typological approach to the Septuagint in which its prophecies found fulfillment in Christ's life, passion, and resurrection.
  • Source: Wikimedia Commons
  • Rights: Public Domain
  • Subject (See Also): Bible Exegesis- Matthew-Parable of Wise and Foolish Virgins Bible-New Testament Bible- Old Testament Gardens Virgins
  • Geographic Area: Eastern Mediterranean
  • Century: 6
  • Date:
  • Related Work: Rossano Gospels, also known as the Codex purpureus Rossanensis. See full page views of the folios: http://www.calabria.org.uk/calabria/arte-cultura/CodexPurpureusRossanensis/CodexPurpureusRossanensis.htm
  • Current Location: Rossano, Biblioteca arcivescovile
  • Original Location:
  • Artistic Type (Category): Digital images; Manuscript Illuminations
  • Artistic Type (Material/Technique): Vellum (parchment); Paint; Purple dye; Silver; Gold
  • Donor:
  • Height/Width/Length(cm): 30cm (whole folio)/25cm (whole folio)/
  • Inscription:
  • Related Resources: Andre Grabar, Christian Iconography: A Study of its Origins, Part 3 (Routledge, 1969), 141.