DOMENICHINO
(b. 1581, Bologna, d. 1641, Napoli)

Caritas

1622-28
Fresco
Sant'Andrea della Valle, Rome

Below the level of the narrative pictures in the choir are six monumental seated female personifications, pairs of them flanking the three windows. Fides, Caritas, Spes, and Fortitudo appear on the sides, while two virtues frame the centre window: Povertà Voluntaria with a bared torso, and Religio Regolare embracing a cross. Unlike the figures in the narrative pictures, the virtues are rendered as though physically present in the space. The bases on which they sit and the shadows they cast onto the whitewashed background lend them a distinct reality.

The picture shows Caritas, one of the six virtues in the apse calotte.