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Charity
Abraham Bloemaertc. 1590
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Cleveland, United States
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.
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Details
- Title: Charity
- Creator: Abraham Bloemaert (Dutch, 1564–1651)
- Date Created: c. 1590
- Physical Dimensions: Framed: 87 x 100 x 10.2 cm (34 1/4 x 39 3/8 x 4 in.); Unframed: 68.6 x 54.5 cm (27 x 21 7/16 in.)
- Provenance: Private collection, Caracas, Venezuela, (Sotheby’s, New York, Jan. 17, 1992, no. 18 [as "attributed to Abraham Bloemaert"]; unsold), American private collection?, (Sotheby’s, New York, private treaty sale, June 16, 1993, sold to Jack Kilgore), (Jack Kilgore & Co., Inc., New York, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art), The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, Ohio
- Type: Painting
- Rights: CC0
- External Link: https://clevelandart.org/art/1994.10
- Medium: oil on wood
- Fun Fact: Charity is almost always personified as a woman with children.
- Department: European Painting and Sculpture
- Culture: Netherlands, late 16th Century
- Credit Line: Purchase from the J. H. Wade Fund
- Collection: P - Netherlandish-Dutch
- Accession Number: 1994.10
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