CRANACH, Lucas the Elder
(b. 1472, Kronach, d. 1553, Weimar)

Charity

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Oil on panel, 50 x 34 cm
Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp

The nude Caritas, or Charity, is surrounded by three children. In this way, the protestant Cranach imbued his subject with a quality of motherly love, despite the fact that he is more concerned with the female body than the emblematic aspect of the subject. Cranach's nudes are immediately recognisable and he glorified them in numerous mythological and biblical scenes.




© Web Gallery of Art, created by Emil Krén and Daniel Marx.