CRANACH, Lucas the Younger
(b. 1515, Wittenberg, d. 1586, Weimar)

Caritas

1540-45
Panel
Fridart Stiftung, Amsterdam

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. It is Caritas who appears almost exclusively in the depictions of Virtue by Cranach, with the exception of two pictures of Justice in the form of a lightly veiled female nude carrying scales and a sword.