Content deleted Content added
added Caravaggio to →Artists' depictions |
→External links: link to Commons is now defined on wikidata |
||
| (45 intermediate revisions by 25 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{short description|Ancient story}}
[[File:Peter_Paul_Rubens_-_Cimon_en_Pero.jpg
'''Roman Charity''' ({{lang-la|
==History==
[[File:Gaspar de Crayer - Caritas Romana
The story is recorded in the ''[[Factorum ac
Maximus's anecdote of Pero and Cimon posits the following ekphrastic challenge:<ref>Valerius Maximus, Memorable Doings and Sayings, ed. and transl. by D.R. Shackleton Bailey (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2000), vol. 1, 501–03.</ref>
“Men’s eyes are riveted in amazement when they see the painting of this act and renew the features of the long bygone incident in astonishment at the spectacle now before them, believing that in those silent outlines of limbs they see living and breathing bodies. This must needs happen to the mind also, admonished to remember things long past as though they were recent by painting, which is considerably more effective than literary memorials.”<ref>Valerius Maximus, Memorable Doings and Sayings, ed. and transl. by D.R. Shackleton Bailey (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 2000), vol. 1, 501–03.</ref>▼
▲
The story of Cimon is accompanied by an almost identical story recorded by Roman historian Valerius Maximus, later retold by [[Pliny the Elder]] (AD 23–79), of a jailed plebeian woman who was nursed by her daughter.<ref name="Yalom (2013)">{{cite news |last=Yalom |first=Marilyn |author-link=Marilyn Yalom |title=Roman Charity |date=April 10, 2013 |newspaper=[[New York Times Book Review]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/books/review/roman-charity.html |access-date=March 18, 2018 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20180318232011/http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/books/review/roman-charity.html |archive-date=March 18, 2018 |url-status=live }}</ref> Reporting this to the judicial authorities the mother's sentence is remitted. While the guard does hesitate and wonder if perhaps what he saw was against nature (an act of lesbianism), he concludes that in fact it is an example of the first law of nature, which is to love one's own parents.<ref>Jutta Sperling, [https://demeterpress.org/books/breastfeeding-culture-discourses-and-representations/ “Same-Sex Lactations in European Art and Literature (ca. 1300-1800): Allegory, Melancholy, Loss,”] in: Breastfeeding and Culture: Discourses and Representation, eds. Ann Marie A. Short, Abigail L. Palko, and Dionne.</ref>▼
▲The
==Subject in Art==▼
===Early Depictions in Germany and Italy===▼
[[File:
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>
[[File:Sebald-beham-cimon-and-pero-1540.jpg|thumb|upright|Drawing by [[Sebald Beham]], 1540]]
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 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>
Line 25 ⟶ 26:
===Influences from Caravaggio and Rubens===
[[File:Caravaggio_-_Sette_opere_di_Misericordia.jpg|alt=|thumb|Caravaggio, The Seven Acts of Mercy (c. 1606)]]▼
In 1606 [[Baroque]] artist [[Caravaggio]] featured the scene in his work, [[The Seven Works of Mercy]], commissioned by the confraternity of [[Pio Monte Della Misericordia]].<ref>Sperling,[https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-3284-2/roman-charity/?number=978-3-8394-3284-6 Roman Charity], p. 132.</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 must 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>▼
▲[[File:Caravaggio_-_Sette_opere_di_Misericordia.jpg
[[Peter Paul Rubens]] and his followers are known to have painted at least three versions. Followers of Ruben's tended to copy his 1630 version (housed in Amsterdam) but began introducing a sleeping child at Pero's feet, a detail the original legend does not mention.This element was introduced in the 17th century in order to prevent an interpretation that there was something incestuous about the deed – although the existence of a child is implicit in any case, since the woman is [[lactating]]. At the same time, the inclusion of the infant added a new level of meaning to the story as the three figures would represent the three generations and could therefore also be interpreted as an allegory of the three ages of man.<ref>[https://www.kmska.be/en/collectie/highlights/CimonenPero.html] Jerôme Duquesnoy (attributed to Artus Quellinus the Elder), ''Caritas Romana''] at the [[Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Antwerp]]</ref> Indeed, many examples of paintings, prints, and sculptures of Roman Charity include a baby or pre-school-age child (perhaps in the vein of the boy included in Poussin's The Gathering of the Manna), by artists such as [[Niccolò̀ Tornioli]] (1598–1651), [[Cecco Bravo]] (1607–61), [[Artus Quellinus the Elder]] (1609–1668), [[Louis Boullogne]] (1609–74), [[Jean Cornu]] (1650-1710), [[Johann Carl Loth]] (1632–98), [[Carlo Cignani]] (1628–1719), [[Adrian van der Werff]] (1659–1722), [[Gregorio Lazzarini]] (1657–1730), [[Francesco Migliori]] (1684–1734), and Johann Peter Weber (1737-1804).<ref>Sperling,[url=https://www.transcript-verlag.de/978-3-8376-3284-2/roman-charity/?number=978-3-8394-3284-6 Roman Charity], p. 194.</ref> A small annex to the [[Belfry of Ghent]] dating from 1741, including a sculpture of Roman Charity poised high above the front doorway. It is referred to as 'mammelokker', which translates from Dutch as 'breast sucker'.<ref>[http://artoria.be/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Engelse-flyer.pdf The Belfort of Gent]</ref>▼
[[File:Ghent relief.jpg|left|thumb|280px|''Mammelokker'', [[Belfry of Ghent]]]]▼
▲In 1606/1607, the early [[Baroque]] artist [[Caravaggio]] featured the scene in his
▲[[Peter Paul Rubens]] and his followers are known to have painted at least three versions. Followers of Ruben's tended to copy his 1630 version (
[[File:Artemisia Gentileschi 'Caritas Romana'.webp|thumb|Version by [[Artemisia Gentileschi]] (17th-century) ]]
A version by [[Artemisia Gentileschi]] is notable in that the artist was a woman.<ref name="Guardian-Gentileschi">{{cite news |title=Italian police thwart illegal sale of Artemisia Gentileschi painting |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jul/19/italy-police-artemisia-gentileschi-painting |access-date=19 July 2022 |work=The Guardian |date=19 July 2022 }}</ref>
A small annex to the [[Belfry of Ghent]] dating from 1741, including a sculpture of Roman Charity poised high above the front doorway. It is referred to as 'mammelokker', which translates from Dutch as 'breast sucker'.<ref>[http://artoria.be/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Engelse-flyer.pdf The Belfort of Gent]</ref>
==Mother-daughter version==
[[File:Poussin,_Nicolas_-_The_Jews_Gathering_the_Manna_in_the_Desert_-1637_-_1639.jpg|alt=|thumb|The Gathering of the Manna in the Desert (c.1639)]]▼
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>
▲[[File:Poussin,_Nicolas_-_The_Jews_Gathering_the_Manna_in_the_Desert_-1637_-_1639.jpg|
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.
[[File:Unnamed Roman Girl Feeds her Mother in Prison, Illumination of Giovanni Boccaccio, De cleres et nobles femmes, 1402.png|thumb|upright|[[Giovanni Boccaccio]] (c. 1402) ]]
While the choice to depict the mother-daughter scene as opposed to that of Pero and Cimon was unique at the time that Poussin was painting, the same-sex version enjoyed wider popularity than the father-daughter scene during the Middle Ages and into the early modern period.<ref>Sperling,[url=https://demeterpress.org/books/breastfeeding-culture-discourses-and-representations/ “Same-Sex Lactations,”] p. 50.</ref> The medieval work Girard de Rossillon, by an anonymous, tells the story of the imprisoned mother, nursed by her daughter but embellishes it, inventing a name for the daughter – bone Berte – and a noble lineage for the family.<ref>Sperling, [https://demeterpress.org/books/breastfeeding-culture-discourses-and-representations/ “Same-Sex Lactations,”] p. 54.</ref> In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, writers [[Giovanni Boccaccio]] (1313–75) and [[Christine de Pizan]] (1364-1430) both used the story of the Roman daughter as a story of reciprocal kinship relations.<ref>Sperling, [https://demeterpress.org/books/breastfeeding-culture-discourses-and-representations/ “Same-Sex Lactations,”] p. 50.</ref> In the sixteenth century [[Hans Sachs]] produced an eroticized work on the scene.<ref>Sperling, [https://demeterpress.org/books/breastfeeding-culture-discourses-and-representations/ “Same-Sex Lactations,”] p. 62.</ref>▼
▲While the choice to depict the mother-daughter scene as opposed to that of Pero and Cimon was unique at the time that Poussin was painting, the same-sex version enjoyed wider popularity than the father-daughter scene during the Middle Ages and into the early modern period.<ref>Sperling,[
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>
==Modern
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.
A contemporary version is made by the Flemish artist Yves Decadt in his series of Allegories called [https://www.artnet.com/artists/yves-decadt/allegory-of-the-roman-charity-charity-of-the-poor-a-JbP3z9Y3pFsgfCQv343-RA2 Falling Angels].
==Depictions with articles==
*''[[Roman Charity (Rubens)|Roman Charity]]'' by Rubens, c. 1612, [[Hermitage Museum]]
*''[[Cimon and Pero (Rubens)|Cimon and Pero]]'' by Rubens, 1630, [[Siegen]]
*''[[Caritas Romana (de Crayer)|Caritas Romana]]'', Gaspar de Crayen aaron, [[Prado]]
*''[[Caritas Romana (de Crayer, 1645)|Caritas Romana]]'', [[Gaspar de Crayer]], c. 1645, private collection
==Artists' depictions==
<gallery caption="">
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:Master with the Griffin’s Head, Pero and Cimon, 1546.jpg|Master with the Griffin's Head (c.1546)
File:Roman Charity - Pieter Pauwel Reubens.jpg|[[Peter Paul Rubens]]<br />(c. 1612)
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:Guercino,
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:Maucher Cimon und Pero.jpg|
File:Roman Charity - Jean-Baptiste Greuze.jpg|[[Jean-Baptiste Greuze]]<br />(c. 1767)
File:John Smith - Roman Charity - B1970.3.1252 - Yale Center for British Art.jpg|[[Mezzotint]] print by [[John Smith (engraver)|John Smith]]
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)
File:The roman daughter rembrandt peale.jpg|[[Rembrandt Peale]]<br />(1811)
</gallery>
==References==
===Citations===
{{Reflist|30em}}
===Bibliography===
* {{citation |last= |first= |editor=Hugh Chisholm |display-editors=0 |contribution=[[:s:1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica/Pietas|Pietas]] |title=[[:s:1911 Encyclopædia Britannica|''Encyclopaedia Britannica'']] |edition=11th |date=1911 |volume=[[:s:1911_Encyclopædia_Britannica/Vol_21_PAYN_to_POLKA|XXI]] |publisher=Encyclopaedia Britannica |location=New York |ref=CITEREFEnc._Brit.1911 |page=592 }}.
==External links==
*{{Commons-inline
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Baroque painting]]
| |||