Charityca. 1630
A young woman nurses an infant while other children gather around her, the traditional personification of Charity, greatest of the three theological virtues. More about this work
About this work
A young woman nurses an infant while other children gather around her, the traditional personification of Charity, greatest of the three theological virtues. Guido Reni, the most admired painter in seventeenth-century Bologna, gives her the idealised beauty and luminous, porcelain-like skin for which he was celebrated across Europe. The soft, harmonious colour and graceful arrangement of the figures were meant to move the viewer through beauty rather than drama.
Written by Ochre Editions.
How it was made
- Oil paint
- Pigment ground in a drying oil, usually linseed. It dries slowly, so painters could blend on the canvas, build up thin translucent glazes, and rework a picture over weeks. Canvas replaced wooden panels in the 1500s because it is lighter and can be rolled.
Guido Reni
Italian, 1575–1642 · Born and died in Bologna.
Reni trained in Bologna, first with Denys Calvaert and then at the Carracci academy, and spent the early 1600s in Rome, where his fresco Aurora won wide fame. Returning to Bologna, he ran a large studio and became the most admired painter of his generation, prized for idealised figures, cool, clear colour and graceful movement. His late works, such as Salome with the Head of Saint John the Baptist, are freer in handling and paler in tone.
Written by Ochre Editions.
Rights and the museum’s record
Public domain. The Met has dedicated this image to the public domain under CC0, so anyone may copy, adapt and use it, for any purpose, without asking. Our prints and files are reproductions made from the museum’s image; the museum doesn’t endorse them.
- Object number
- 1974.348
- Credit
- Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Type
- Paintings
- Department
- European Paintings
- Licence
- CC0 1.0 Universal
- Museum record
- See it on the museum’s site
