Allegory of Charity - Pupil of Lambert Lombard (1505-1566)

Allegory of Charity
Pupil of Lambert Lombard (Liège 1505-1566)
16th century Flemish School
Oil on oak panel
Dim. H. 101.5 cm (39.96 inch), W. 74.5 cm (29.33 in)
A 17th century rare Italian carved and giltwood frame
Framed: h. 121 cm (47.64 inch), w. 93 cm (36.61 in)

Our seductive work illustrates the allegory of charity, personified by a young woman surrounded by eight naked and chubby children.
Dressed in an antique outfit, sitting in the center of an architectural niche, she holds two children on her lap, while six other toddlers play and bicker at her feet. One of the children brings her the cup filled with fruit, which also serves as her attribute.
The background is made up of a large green drapery stretched between red marble columns against a background of ancient ruins.
The figures of the cherubs with wriggling postures and animated faces are delicately painted with soft shadows that sculpt their plump bodies.
The soft light illuminates the entire scene, the warm palette dominated by reds and brown ochres amplifies the benevolence of the scene.
The touching gestures of the children entwined in their lovemaking, one of the toddlers caressing the young woman's cheek, the omnipresent touch intensify the theme, and Charity presents herself as the mother of Love.
Strongly influenced by the Italian Mannerism, the construction of our work is reminiscent of the pyramidal schemes of Leonardo da Vinci or Raphael, while the antique clothes and ancient ruins testify to a particular attraction for Italian art.
Our work is directly related to the drawing of Lambert Lombard, known from the engraving dated 1550 made by his son-in-law Lambert Suavius, the composition probably inspired by Andrea del Sarto's Charity (1518, Louvre Museum, inv. 712)
Lambert Lombard is one of the most important artists of the Liège Renaissance, who went to Rome in Italy where he was able to see the works of the greatest Italian painters. On his return he founded an Academy of Art in Liège, his studio, frequented by many disciples who sometimes came from very distant regions, made Liège around 1540 the liveliest artistic centre in the Netherlands.
He was an avant-garde artist, abandoning the precepts of Gothic art in favor of Italian and ancient art.
His main disciples were Frans Floris, Guillaume Key, Hubert Goltzius, Dominique Lampson, Lambert Suavius, Jean Ramey and Pierre Dufour.
Lambert Lombard was a great draughtsman, especially around ancient themes, working mainly for a private clientele, but he seems to have painted relatively little, only a few painted works are attributed to him with certainty. He was first and foremost an inventive artist, relegating the execution of paintings to his students.

Related works:
• Engravings par Lambert Suavius, after the drawing by Lambert Lombard, c. 1550, cabinet des Estampes de Liège
• Lambert Lombard, c. 1560, oil on panel (114,5 x 92 cm). The State Hermitage Museum, St Petersbourg, Russia. Comment : antiques ruins in the background are replaced by a landscape
• Amos Anderson Art Museum, Helsinki, Finland, 16th century, oil on panel, dim. unknown. Commente : a very similar version with a few differences in the background

Charity, together with Faith and Hope, is one of the three theological virtues (a virtue that must guide men and women, forming humanity, in their relationship to the world and to God):
• faith, the disposition to believe in revealed truths;
• hope, the disposition to hope for bliss;
• charity, also called love, since it is the love of God, of oneself and of one's neighbor for God's sake.
The three theological virtues complete the group of four cardinal, human virtues (prudence, temperance, fortitude, and justice).
Their set is sometimes referred to as the seven virtues.
In works of art from the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, and up to the nineteenth century, the virtues are usually depicted as women. Representations are always allegorical, and it is the attributes that make it possible to recognize one or the other of the virtues