The Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins

Around 1636 Padovanino painted this oval for a ceiling, so it was made to be read from below, looking up, which is why the figures lean out and are foreshortened so steeply. The church it hung in stood inside the Ospedale degli Incurabili, one of the large Venetian hospitals that took in the sick and the destitute. Its subject is a parable Christ tells in the Gospel of Matthew. Ten young women wait through the night for a bridegroom. Five have kept oil for their lamps and are ready when he finally arrives. Five have let theirs burn out and are shut outside the wedding. On the ceiling of a hospital church, a story about being ready when the end comes carried a plain meaning. The building was pulled down in 1831, and the painting reached the Accademia in 1896.