1590
unspecified
From the collection of Cleveland Museum of Art
Charity is a 1590 unspecified by Abraham Bloemaert, a Mannerism work, held at Cleveland Museum of Art.
A woman sits with three kids climbing all over her. One baby nurses at her bare breast. This painting shows *Charity*—not just kindness, but the old idea of selfless love. The twist? The artist made it feel a little sensual, with stretched-out bodies and rich colors. That mix of holy and human was typical of Mannerism, a style that liked drama and odd angles. To see more like this, look up *chiaroscuro*—the way light and shadow play here.
Abraham Bloemaert drew on traditional depictions of the Virgin and Child for this allegorical image of Charity: a woman surrounded by children, one an infant for whom she has bared her breast. Bloemaert was one of the leading proponents of the Mannerist style in the Northern Netherlands. Characteristics of that style include exaggerated figural proportions, contorted poses, heightened colors, densely packed compositions, and a deliberate eroticism—invoked here to emphasize the magnetic quality of Charity’s serene beauty.
Charity is almost always personified as a woman with children.
Read the full account in the museum source.
Abraham Bloemaert (25 December 1566 – 27 January 1651) was a Dutch painter and printmaker who used etching and engraving.
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