The Three Theological Virtures: Faith, Hope, and Charity, Surrounded by the Four Evangelists (before 1634): Art, History and Details

The Three Theological Virtures: Faith, Hope, and Charity, Surrounded by the Four Evangelists (before 1634) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection. The museum's creator attribution is Pieter I de Jode (Flemish, 1570–1634).

The work and its context

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

This drawing is a design for a frontispiece, or title page, for the 1639 edition of the Theatrum Biblicum, a pictorial Bible compiled from print series by various artists illustrating the Old and New Testaments. Pieter De Jode the Elder’s monumental figural types depict the three theological virtues: Charity, atop a blank plinth, Hope, on the right, and Faith, on the left, bordered by the four Apostles with their attributes. The plinth was kept blank in order to be filled in with the title of the book (in this case, the New Testament), in the printed version. De Jode spent his career making and publishing prints primarily for the Antwerp book trade, which flourished during the late 16th and 17th centuries.

Object facts

• Title: The Three Theological Virtures: Faith, Hope, and Charity, Surrounded by the Four Evangelists
• Date: before 1634
• Creator attribution: Pieter I de Jode (Flemish, 1570–1634)
• Culture: Netherlands
• Type: Drawing
• Technique: Pen and ink, brush and wash over chalk with indications of transfer
• Dimensions: Sheet: 20.3 x 27.3 cm (8 x 10 3/4 in.)
• Collection: DR - Dutch
• Department: Drawings
• Accession number: 2024.75

A detail from the museum

In the period, the virtue of Charity, also described as Love, seen here seated atop the plinth, was usually portrayed as a woman tending to three children.

Collection credit

Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund

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.