Charity (c. 1550–1600): Art, History and Details

Charity (c. 1550–1600) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

When this alabaster group entered the museum's collection, it was thought to depict the Virgin Mary, Christ, and Saint John the Baptist. It has been identified, however, as a personification of Charity, the most elevated of the three Christian theological virtues. The two other theological virtues are Faith and Hope. Within Christian belief, Charity is also known as a supernatural virtue, where the object of human conduct is the ultimate unification with God through love. Alluding to its eminent position, Charity sits enthroned, with powerful hybrid beasts supporting her chair. The diminutive footstool propping up her left foot may refer to the necessity of humility in one's relationship to God. Also, a child raises a vessel filled with fruits to another suggesting that selflessness and love are attributes of charitable actions.

Object facts

• Title: Charity
• Date: c. 1550–1600
• Culture: Franco-Flemish, second half 16th century
• Type: Sculpture
• Technique: alabaster
• Dimensions: Overall: 29.9 x 14 x 14 cm (11 3/4 x 5 1/2 x 5 1/2 in.)
• Collection: Sculpture
• Department: European Painting and Sculpture
• Accession number: 1951.541

Collection credit

Gift of Baroness R. de Kerchove

Further reading listed by the museum

• Milliken, William. "Alabaster Group Attributed to Germain Pilon." The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 40, no. 2 (February 1953): 27-30.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1966. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1966.
• The Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of the Cleveland Museum of Art/1969. Cleveland, OH: The Cleveland Museum of Art, 1969.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.