Charity

Opaque glass mosaic, designed by William Blake Richmond, executed by Messrs Powell of Whitefriars, installed by 1896



The Latin word caritas stands for a key Christian virtue that can be translated into English as either charity or love. Therefore allegories of charity are a well-established theme in Christian art. This particular allegory appears nonetheless to be a new interpretation and responds closely to the celebration of charity/love in St Paul’s First letter to the Corinthians (see below). The overall composition of the allegories is rather static and clumsy, almost like tarot cards, when compared to the extraordinary designs found elsewhere in the quire.



This allegorical mosaic is one of six allegories of Christian virtues in the apse of St Paul’s Cathedral. The male and female figures are shown with symbolic objects, also known as attributes, and represent the following moral concepts: charity, truth, fortitude, chastity, hope and justice. The selection is inspired by the traditional seven key Christian virtues which are mentioned in the Old Testament and also have parallels in classical philosophy. Temperance, truth (which could be shown instead of the related virtue of prudence), justice and fortitude are the most common cardinal (Latin for ‘main’) virtues - three of which are represented in the quire. In addition, allegories of Hope and Charity, two of the three theological virtues faith, love and hope, can be seen. Chastity, also depicted, was included in a list of seven “Heavenly Virtues”, first promoted in the fifth century.

Virtues have always been an important subject matter of Christian art, even though the key virtues changed over the course of the centuries. In term of mosaics, Boris Anrep’s Modern Virtues, completed over half a century later and part of his mosaic floor for the National Gallery, provide an interesting comparison and contrast in terms not only of selection of virtues, but also in terms of style and mosaic technique.

Brief description: figure of an angel, standing on a thorny bush with symmetrically scrolling branches and holding up a disc with a cross; the angels wings, dress, skin and wreath all in golden hues; against a dark blue sky with stars; inscribed in Latin “CARITAS” (‘charity’)



Related quotes: 1 Corinthians 13:13: “Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous and boastful; it is not arrogant or rude. Love does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable and resentful; it does not rejoice at wrong, but rejoices in the right. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. … So faith, hope, love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.”

Browne 1896, p. 6: “[...] six figures have been worked in mosaic, typical of six Virtues named in the Revelation. These are, beginning on the north side and passing round to the south,1. Hope, 2. Fortitude, 3. Charity, 4.Truth, 5. Chastity, 6. Justice.”