Three Foolish Virgins Flanked by Adam and Eve 1539

Parmigianino painted this fresco of three foolish virgins flanked by Adam and Eve in the Sanctuary of Santa Maria della Steccata, Parma, Italy. Painted in the 1530s, this fresco combines classical and religious imagery in a way that reflects the cultural and religious context of its time. The tale of the foolish virgins is from the Gospel of Matthew in which some maidens were not prepared for the coming of Christ. The naked figures of Adam and Eve are not only biblical but allude to classical sculptures that had been unearthed in Italy by this time. The Steccata was under the patronage of the Knights of Malta, a Catholic military order, whose members were from the aristocracy, and this fresco was part of a project of artistic patronage designed to burnish the image of the Church during the Reformation. To understand this work further, historians look to sources such as religious treatises, records of artistic patronage, and social histories of the period. This fresco's meaning is inseparable from its social and institutional context.