Michele Tosini, 'Charity', probably about 1570
About the work
Overview
Charity is one of the theological virtues, together with Faith and Hope. From the sixteenth century onwards, Charity was commonly depicted as a mother suckling her infants. Here, one of the children looks at us and draws our attention to his mother’s example. Her breast is still exposed from feeding her babies, although they have turned away from it.
The red velvet cloth behind the woman resembles the cloth of honour often hung behind the Virgin and Child in sixteenth-century Italian altarpieces to suggest the appearance of a throne. The visual association of Charity with the Virgin and Child is frequent in Italian art of the period and would have been intentional.
The composition derives from Francesco Salviati’s larger picture of the subject in the Uffizi, Florence, painted around 1540, which is itself based on Michelangelo’s Doni Tondo, also in the Uffizi. The antique-style headdress, elegant twisting pose and bright ’shot' colours strongly highlighted with white are typical of Florentine Mannerist art.
Key facts
Details
- Full title
- Charity
- Artist
- Michele Tosini
- Artist dates
- 1503 - 1577
- Date made
- probably about 1570
- Medium and support
- oil on wood
- Dimensions
- 24.5 × 17.8 cm
- Acquisition credit
- Bought, 1860
- Inventory number
- NG652
- Location
- Not on display
- Collection
- Main Collection
Provenance
Additional information
Text extracted from the ‘Provenance’ section of the catalogue entry in Cecil Gould, ‘National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools’, London 1987; for further information, see the full catalogue entry.
Exhibition history
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2014Making ColourThe National Gallery (London)18 June 2014 - 7 September 2014
Bibliography
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1860'The National Gallery', Art Journal, 1860
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1861R.N. Wornum, Descriptive and Historical Catalogue of the Pictures in the National Gallery, London 1861
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1861London, National Gallery Archive: Report of the Director of the National Gallery to the Lords Commisssioners of Her Majesty's Treasury, 2 April 1861
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1888E.T. Cook, A Popular Handbook to the National Gallery Including, by Special Permission, Notes Collected from the Works of Mr. Ruskin, London 1888
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1901A. Venturi, Storia dell'arte italiana, 11 vols, Milan 1901
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1920H. Voss, Die Malerei der Spätrenaissance in Rom und Florenz, Berlin 1920
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1935W. Stechow, 'Michele Tosini', in U. Thieme and F. Becker (eds), Allgemeines Lexikon der bildenden Künstler von der Antike bis zur Gegenwart, Leipzig 1935, pp. 365-367
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1957M. Mrozinska, 'Caritas z kręgu Francesca dei Rossi zwanego Salviati', Rocznit Muzeum Narodwego w Warzszawia, II, 1957, pp. 585-602
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1962Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools (excluding the Venetian), London 1962
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1963I.H. Cheney, Francesco Salviati, Phd Thesis, New York University 1963
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1985A. Pinelli, '"Per uscir del modo ordinario e far cosa ch'avessse del nuovo": Una singolare "Carità" di Francesco Salviati', Ricerche di storia dell'arte, XXVI, 1985, pp. 39-49
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1987Gould, Cecil, National Gallery Catalogues: The Sixteenth Century Italian Schools, London 1987
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1992L. Mortari, Francesco Salviati, Rome 1992
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2001
C. Baker and T. Henry, The National Gallery: Complete Illustrated Catalogue, London 2001
About this record
If you know more about this painting or have spotted an error, please contact us. Please note that exhibition histories are listed from 2009 onwards. Bibliographies may not be complete; more comprehensive information is available in the National Gallery Library.