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A Wise Virgin
Production: Unidentified
Lead-glazed earthenware painted in polychrome enamels
Cream earthenware, press-moulded, covered with slightly blue tinted lead-glaze and painted in pale turquoise, green, yellow, ochre, reddish-brown and black enamels. The figure is supported on a low straight-sided square base, the underside of which has canted sides, and a closed central area with a large ventilation hole in the middle. The exterior is decorated with a dark reddish-brown horizontal line on all four sides. The woman, possibly one of the Wise Virgins stands on a green mound with her left leg advanced, holding a ewer in her left hand by her side, and extending her right arm towards the viewer. The hand and what it held is missing. She has long ochre-coloured hair swept away from her face into a low bun at the back, and with tresses falling down over her shoulders. She wears a yellow bodice and mantle with dark reddish-brown lining over a long pale turquoise skirt edged and spotted in black. Her ewer has a dark reddish-brown rim and foot, a spray of foliage on the side and spots on the shoulder. The underside is painted in reddish-brown with the number '43' .
History note: Puttick & Simpson, London, 2 March 1909, one of three items in lot 44 ; purchased for £1 6s.0d. by S. Fenton on behalf of Dr J.W.L. Glaisher, FRS, Trinity College, Cambridge
Dr J. W. L. Glaisher Bequest
Depth: 9.8 cm
Height: 22.5 cm
Method of acquisition: Bequeathed (1928-12-07) by Glaisher, J. W. L., Dr
Early 19th century
George IV
Production date:
circa
AD 1820
This figure was identified by Dr Glaisher as possibly The Lost Piece because he imagined that the woman's missing hand held the found coin, but an example in the Willett Collection at Brighton Museum holds a flaming lamp in that hand, which suggests that the woman represents one of the five Wise Virgins from the Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins in the Gospel of St Matthew, 25:1-13. If she had held a cup or bowl in the extended hand, she might, as Rackham suggested in 1935, have been intended to represent Temperance.
Decoration
composed of
enamel
( pale turquoise, green, yellow, ochre, dark reddish-brown, and black)
Surface
composed of
lead-glaze
( slightly blue tinted)
Base
Width 8.8 cm
cream Earthenware
Inscription present: rectangular white paper stick on label with a blue line on left top and right sides and a plant motif in two top corners
Accession number: C.921-1928
Primary reference Number: 76383
Old object number: 3015
Stable URI
Owner or interested party:
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Associated department:
Applied Arts
This record can be cited in the Harvard Bibliographic style using the text below:
The Fitzwilliam Museum (2024) "A Wise Virgin" Web page available at: https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/76383 Accessed: 2024-11-05 16:48:35
To cite this record on Wikipedia you can use this code snippet:
{{cite web|url=https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/id/object/76383
|title=A Wise Virgin
|author=The Fitzwilliam Museum|accessdate=2024-11-05 16:48:35|publisher=The
University of Cambridge}}
To call these data via our API (remember this needs to be authenticated) you can use this code snippet:
https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/api/v1/objects/object-76383
To use this as a simple code embed, copy this string:
<div class="text-center">
<figure class="figure">
<img src="https://data.fitzmuseum.cam.ac.uk/imagestore/aa/aa2/C_921_1928_281_29.jpg"
alt="A Wise Virgin"
class="img-fluid" />
<figcaption class="figure-caption text-info">A Wise Virgin</figcaption>
</figure>
</div>
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