# The Works of Mercy [View the canonical artwork record]() ## Artwork - Artist: [TENIERS, David the Younger]() - Date: 1651-1700 - Technique: Oil on copper, 57 x 77 cm ## Commentary The Works of Mercy, a famous theme drawn from the Gospel of St Matthew, listing six kinds of charitable deeds \(to which, in the thirteenth century, was added the burial of the deceased\), was highly appreciated by Teniers or by his clientele: at least five other versions of that theme had been recorded in the painters's work. Its imagery had been widely diffused in the painting of the former Lowlands since the fifteenth century. The seven works of mercy prescribed the Christian's fundamental duties towards his fellow-creatures: quench the thirsty, feed the hungry, dress the naked, welcome the pilgrims, visit the sick and the prisoners and bury the dead. Teniers chose to represent these scenes in space and to privilege the first three of these good deeds in the foreground of the picture. ## Related artworks - [A Barn Interior]() - [A Cobbler in his Workshop]() - [A View of Het Sterckshof near Antwerp]() - [Apes in the Kitchen]() - [Archduke Leopold Wilhelm in his Gallery]() - [Archduke Leopold Wilhelm of Austria in his Gallery]() - [Before the Inn]() - [Card Players]() - [Country Kermis]() - [Countryside Inn with Revellers \(detail\)]() - [Countryside Inn with Revellers]() - [Dulle Griet \(Mad Meg\)]() ## Attribution [Web Gallery of Art]()