Roman Charity (after Guido Reni)
Isabella Maria dal Pozzo (fl. Turin 1666 – Munich 1700)
Category
Art / Oil paintings
Date
1660 - 1699
Materials
Oil on canvas
Measurements
889 x 690 mm (35 x 27 in)
Place of origin
Italy
Order this imageCollection
Kedleston Hall, Derbyshire
NT 108857
Summary
Oil painting on canvas, Roman Charity (Cimon and Pero) (after Guido Reni) by Isabella Maria dal Pozzo (fl. Turin 1666 – Munich 1700), late 17th century. Two figures, half-length; an old man, left profile, hands clasped, leans forward and sucks the right nipple of the young female figure on right, she is turned slightly to left, head inclined downward gazing at the old man, she clasps her right breast with her left hand. It is illustrating the story told by Valerius Maximus, of Cimon, whose daughter Pero nourished him with her own milk when he was incarcerated without food awaiting execution. It was a popular image for artists of the 16th - 18th centuries in Italy and the Netherlands and was treated as a example of filial piety. Apparently the only work in Britain by this rare woman painter from Savoy, who spent most of her career at the court of Henriette Adelaide of Savoy, the consort of the Elector of Bavaria. Recorded in the house since 1769.
Provenance
Recorded in the house since 1769; and thence by descent until bought with part of the contents of Kedleston with the aid of the National Heritage Memorial Fund in 1987 when the house and park were given to the National Trust by Francis Curzon, 3rd Viscount Scarsdale (1924-2000)
Credit line
Kedleston Hall, The Scarsdale Collection (acquired with the help of the National Heritage Memorial Fund and transferred to The National Trust in 1987)
Marks and inscriptions
tablet - painted - bottom of frame - text - ROMAN CHARITY ISABELLA POZZO 1666
Makers and roles
Isabella Maria dal Pozzo (fl. Turin 1666 – Munich 1700), publisher after Guido Reni (Bologna 1575 – Bologna 1642), publisher