Roman Charity: Difference between revisions

 

==History==

 

 

 

 

The motif appeared in both its mother-daughter and father-daughter variety, although the cross-gendered version was ultimately more popular. The earliest modern depictions of Pero and Cimon emerged independently of each other in Southern Germany and Northern Italy around 1525, in a wide range of media including bronze medals, frescoes, engravings, drawings, oil paintings, ceramics, inlaid wood decorations, and statues.<ref>Sperling, [https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-3284-2/roman-charity/?number=978-3-8394-3284-6 Roman Charity], p. 37.</ref>

In Germany, the brothers [[Barthel Beham]] (1502–40) and [[Sebald Beham]] (1500–50) produced between them six different renderings of Pero and Cimon. Barthel's first rendering of the theme in 1525 is usually brought in connection with a brief jail term that he, his brother Sebald, and their common friend [[Georg Pencz]] served for charges of atheism earlier that year. Barthel's brother Sebald would reissue this print in reverse in 1544, this time with two inscriptions informing the viewer of the father's identity (“Czinmon”) and of the meaning of this act: “I live off the breast of my daughter.” Sebald himself would revisit the motif twice in his youth between 1526 and 1530, and again in 1540. The print from 1540 is almost ten times bigger than most of the Beham brothers’ other art works (ca. 40 x 25&nbsp;cm) and openly pornographic. Cimon's arms tied are behind his back and his shoulders and lower body are covered in a jacket-like piece of cloth, however his muscular chest and erect nipples are on full display. Pero stands between Cimon's knees, completely naked, her hair is undone and her pubic region and stomach are shaved. She offers him her left breast with a V-hold. An inscription made to look like a scratching into the wall reads: Whither does Piety not penetrate, what does she not devise?<ref>Sperling, [https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-3284-2/roman-charity/?number=978-3-8394-3284-6 Roman Charity], p. 47-51.</ref>

 

 

===Influences from Caravaggio and Rubens===

In 1606/1607, the early [[Baroque]] artist [[Caravaggio]] featured the scene in his altarpiece, [[The Seven Works of Mercy]], commissioned by the confraternity of [[Pio Monte della Misericordia]] in Naples.<ref>[[Ralf van Bühren]], ''[http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/23753234.2017.1287283 Caravaggio’s ‘Seven Works of Mercy’ in Naples. The relevance of art history to cultural journalism]'', in ''Church, Communication and Culture'' 2 (2017), pp. 63-87, on the interpretation of the “Roman Charity” in Caravaggio’s painting see Bühren 2017, p. 72.</ref> With regards to his choice of iconography, Caravaggio may have been inspired by his predecessor [[Perino del Vaga]], whose fresco of Roman Charity he could have seen during his stay in Genoa in 1605.<ref>Sperling,[https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-3284-2/roman-charity/?number=978-3-8394-3284-6 Roman Charity], p. 117.</ref> Following Caravaggio's altarpiece, the veritable craze for gallery paintings of Pero and Cimon started in 1610–12, and spread through Italy, France, the Southern Netherlands, and Utrecht, even drawing traction among Spanish painters such as [[Jusepe de Ribera]] and, later, [[Bartolomé Esteban Murillo]]. Given the fact that no gallery painting pre-dates 1610, Caravaggio's altarpiece must have inspired a fad that would last another two centuries. Despite this, the subject matter as one favored by many Caravaggisti has historically been overlooked.<ref>Sperling,[https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-3284-2/roman-charity/?number=978-3-8394-3284-6 Roman Charity], p. 114.</ref> [[Utrecht Caravaggisti]], [[Gerrit van Honthorst]], and [[Abraham Bloemaert]] both painted versions of the scene, as did Manfredi. Additionally, nine examples of Roman Charity were apparently produced by Caravaggio's noted and outspoken foe, [[Guido Reni]] (1575 – 1625) and his workshop.<ref>Sperling,[https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-3284-2/roman-charity/?number=978-3-8394-3284-6 Roman Charity], p. 158-59.</ref>

 

 

 

 

During this period of prolific engagement with the imagery of Pero and Cimon, [[Nicolas Poussin]] (1594–1665) stands out because of his rendering of the breastfeeding mother-daughter couple in The Gathering of the Manna (1639).<ref>Sperling,[https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-3284-2/roman-charity/?number=978-3-8394-3284-6 Roman Charity], p. 177.</ref> Poussin's choice of subject matter demonstrated his knowledge of Maximus's other example of filial piety, as well as earlier French renderings of the theme. It is possible that Poussin was familiar with the print by [[Étienne Delaune]] (1518/19–88) and/or, perhaps, the “Histoire Rommaine” printed in Lyon in 1548, in which a mother begs her daughter to let her nurse at her breast – a request the daughter rebukes, challenging her mother to display greater dignity in her suffering, before ultimately succumbing and allowing her mother to suckle.<ref>Sperling, [https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-3284-2/roman-charity/?number=978-3-8394-3284-6 Roman Charity], p. 181.</ref>

 

Similar to later depictions of Pero and Cimon, which contain the addition of Pero's child in order to dissuade any incestuous or salacious readings, Poussin includes the daughter's son, who competes with his grandmother for his mother's milk. In doing so, and in adding an observer whose reaction belays the correct reading of the scene as one of filial piety, Poussin preempts the potential reading of the scene as lesbian – harkening back to the debate Maximus proposes between the onlooking guards.<ref>Sperling,[https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-3284-2/roman-charity/?number=978-3-8394-3284-6 Roman Charity], p. 181.</ref> Despite the fact that Poussin positioned himself as the opposite of Caravaggio, he, like his rival, integrated Maximus's story into a complex religious painting.

 

Few works depicting the mother-daughter version were made between the seventeenth and late eighteenth century. A poem by [[Sibylla Schwarz]](1612–38) on egalitarian relationships among women uses the anecdote.<ref>Sperling, [https://demeterpress.org/books/breastfeeding-culture-discourses-and-representations/ “Same-Sex Lactations,”] p. 57.</ref> A few years after Poussin's painting of The Gathering of the Manna, [[Guercino]] produced an intimate portrait of the mother and daughter (before 1661).<ref>Sperling, [https://demeterpress.org/books/breastfeeding-culture-discourses-and-representations/ “Same-Sex Lactations,”] p. 51.</ref> This is the last known depiction of the scene before its brief resurgence in the late eighteenth century when three paintings by Jean-Charles Nicaise Perrin (1791, lost), [[Angelika Kauffmann]] (1794, lost), and Etienne-Barthélemy Garnier (1801, lost) were made depicting the scene.<ref>Sperling, [https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-3284-2/roman-charity/?number=978-3-8394-3284-6 Roman Charity], p. 41.</ref> Perhaps this brief resurgence of interest can be explained by a French Revolutionary theme of political equality which found resonance in the reciprocity within kinship relations that the mother-daughter version displayed. The reversal of patriarchal relations that Pero and Cimon could be seen as symbolizing, while meaningful under the ancient regime, was now passé.<ref>Sperling, [https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-3284-2/roman-charity/?number=978-3-8394-3284-6 Roman Charity], p. 171.</ref>

 

In the 20th century, a fictional account of Roman Charity was presented in [[John Steinbeck]]'s ''[[The Grapes of Wrath]]'' (1939).<ref>Steinbeck, John. [https://archive.org/download/grapesofwrath030650mbp/grapesofwrath030650mbp.pdf ''The Grapes Of Wrath''.] New York: Viking Press, 1939.</ref> At the end of the novel, Rosasharn (Rose of Sharon) nurses a sick and starving man in the corner of a barn. The 1969 painting ''[[Partisan Ballad]]'' by [[Mai Dantsig]] also echoes Roman Charity.<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.artrusse.uk/collection/artwork/partisan-ballade|title=Partisan ballade 1969 |publisher=Art Russe| accessdate=10 Dec 2015}}</ref>

 

The 1973 surrealist film ''[[O Lucky Man!]]'' also contains a scene of Roman Charity when the protagonist is starving and a vicar's wife nurses him rather than let him plunder the food gathered for an offering.

 

==Artists' depictions==

File:Roman Charity c.1500-1520.jpg|Artist unknown.<br />(c. 1500–1520)

File:Cimon and Pero - Hans Sebald Beham.jpg|[[Hans Sebald Beham]]<br />(1544)

File:Jan Janssens - Roman Caritas.jpg|[[Jan Janssens]]<br />(1620–25)

File:Roman Charity, Cimon and Peres - Dirck Van Baburen.jpg|[[Dirck Van Baburen]]<br />(c. 1623)

File:Roman Charity by Mellin Louvre RF 1985-81 n01.jpg|[[Charles Mellin]]<br />(c. 1628)

File:Pieter van Mol (Attr.) - Roman Charity.jpg|[[Pieter van Mol]]<br />(c. 1640)

File:Caritas romana Caritas Romana, bekroning voor een pomp, BK-AM-51-11.jpg|[[Artus Quellinus the Elder]]<br />(c. 1652)

File:Roman Charity - Jean-Baptiste Greuze.jpg|[[Jean-Baptiste Greuze]]<br />(c. 1767)

File:Roman Charity - Johan Zoffany.jpg|[[Johan Zoffany]]<br />(c. 1769)

File:Barbara Krafft - Franz de Paula hrabě Hartig a jeho manželka Eleonora jako Caritas Romana (1797).jpg|[[Barbara Krafft]]<br />(1797)

</gallery>

 

 

==External links==

 

{{Authority control}}