" The Wise and Foolish Virgins "

^{Peter von Cornelius (23 September 1783, Düsseldorf – 6 March 1867, Berlin) was a German painter; one of the main representatives of the Nazarene movement.}

^{Cornelius, as an oil painter, possessed little technical skill, and his works do not exhibit any instinctive appreciation of colour. Even as a fresco painter his manipulative power was not great. In critically examining the execution in colour of some of his magnificent designs, one cannot help feeling that he was, in this respect, unable to do them full justice. Cornelius and his associates endeavoured to follow in their works the spirit of the Italian painters. But the Italian strain is to a considerable extent modified by the Dürer heritage. This Dürer influence is manifest in a tendency to overcrowding in composition, in a degree of attenuation in the proportions of, and a poverty of contour in, the nude figure, and also in a leaning to the selection of Gothic forms for draperies. These peculiarities are even noticeable in Cornelius's principal work of the "Last Judgment."}

^{There is always in his works a grandeur and nobility of conception. Although not dexterous in the handling of the brush, he could conceive and design a subject with masterly purpose.}