1744
oil
canvas
From the collection of Art Institute of Chicago
Allegory of Charity is a 1744 oil by Francesco de Mura, a Baroque work, depicting Breastfeeding, held at Art Institute of Chicago.
The painting shows a mother holding two children while a pelican pecks at her chest. Blood drips onto her baby in a cradle at her feet. This isn’t just a sweet scene. The pelican feeding its young with its own blood was a common symbol of self-sacrifice in Christian art. It stands for charity—the virtue this whole painting celebrates. Look for the way light falls on the mother’s face and the fur trim on her gown. See how soft it is compared to the sharp red of the pelican’s beak. Check out Francesco de Mura next.
This painting presents an allegory of the virtue of charity through images of maternal love and sacrifice: a mother nurtures several young children and a pelican feeds her young by drawing blood from her own breast. This work was one of a set of allegories of five virtues intended as decorations set above doors in a palace belonging to the king of Savoy, a region in northwest Italy. Francesco de Mura spent most of his career in Naples but also worked for the king of Savoy in the 1740s, producing paintings in a style that combined grand, calm figures with active drapery. Although it is now…
Probably commissioned by Charles Emmanuel III, Turin [see Pinto 1987]. Peretti, Rome, by 1971 [according to Heim Commission Book at the Getty Research Institute]; Heim Gallery, London, 1971; sold to the Art Institute, 1971.
London, Heim Gallery, May 13–August 28, 1971, no. 14. Detroit, Institute of Arts, The Golden Age of Naples: Art and Civilization under the Bourbons 1734–1805, Aug. 11–Nov. 1, 1981, no. 34; Art Institute of Chicago, Jan. 16–Mar. 8, 1982. Worcester, Massachusetts, Art Museum, Hope and Healing: Painting in Italy in a Time of Plague 1500–1800, Apr. 3–Sep. 25, 2005, cat. 9 (ill.). Winter Park, Florida, Cornell Fine Arts Museum, In the Light of Naples: The Art of Francesco de Mura, Sep. 17–Dec. 18, 2016, cat. 19; Madison, Chazen Museum of Art, Jan. 20–Apr. 2, 2017; Arlington, NY, Frances Lehman…
Read the full account in the museum source.
Francesco de Mura (21 April 1696 – 19 August 1782) was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque period, active mainly in Naples and Turin. His late work reflects the style of neoclassicism.
See the richer artist pageYour cart is empty
Explore artworks →
