03 — ARTWORK
Caritas (Charity)
CRANACH, Lucas the Elder · 1534 →
- MEDIUM
- Oil and tempera on wood
- TYPE
- Religious
PALETTE
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- FILE
- 997 × 1500 px · JPEG
COMMENTARY
UNDERLINED TERMS ARE DEFINED IN THE GLOSSARY.
From 1529 Lucas Cranach the Elder, and his son Lucas the Younger depicted the Christian virtue of Love, Caritas or Charitas, in some dozen different versions. It happened only in individual pictures, where Caritas (Charity) does not appear in the company of the seven (or more) virtues and vices. The earlier clothed personificationan imaginary person conceived as representing a thing, concept or deity. - the idealised figure of a woman - has been replaced by the picture of a young mother. She sits in blissful nakedness on a stone bench, her legs modestly crossed, with only a thin veil covering her head and shoulders. She breastfeeds her baby and allows two somewhat larger boys to cling on her.
This composition later appeared in many other versions. The present version is amongst the earliest of Cranach's numerous variants of Caritas pictures. It is signed and of high quality.
CITE THIS RECORD — BIBTEX
@online{wga-r6d12de0b084114,
author = {Krén, Emil and Marx, Daniel},
title = {Caritas (Charity) by CRANACH, Lucas the Elder},
organization = {{Web Gallery of Art}},
date = {2026-09-13},
url = {https://beta.wga.hu/artists/cranach-lucas-the-elder-r9182bd445f259a/caritas-charity-r6d12de0b084114},
urldate = {2026-09-13},
langid = {english}
}ACCESSED 2026-09-13. REPLACE THE AUTHOR FIELD WITH THE COMMENTARY AUTHOR WHERE ONE IS NAMED.
