Roman Charity
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Roman Charity (or Carità Romana) is the story of a daughter, Pero, who secretly breastfeeds her father, Cimon, after he is incarcerated and sentenced to death by starvation. She is found out by a jailer, but her act of selflessness impresses officials and wins her father's release.[1]
The story is recorded in Memorable Acts and Sayings of the Ancient Romans, Book Nine (De Factis Dictisque Memorabilibus Libri IX) by the ancient Roman historian Valerius Maximus, and was presented as a great act of filial piety and Roman honor. In the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, many famous European artists depicted the scene.[2] Most outstandingly, Peter Paul Rubens had several versions. Baroque artist Caravaggio also featured the deed (among others) in his work from 1606, The Seven Works of Mercy. Neoclassical depictions tended to be more subdued.[3]
In Jan Vermeer's famous painting The Music Lesson, in the back can be seen a painting of the Roman Charity, consistent with his habit of putting paintings within paintings.[4]
For contemporary (20th Century) fictional account of Roman Charity, see John Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath (1939), Chapter 30, where Rosasharn nurses a sick and starving man in the corner of a barn.
[edit] Artists' depictions
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 "Cimon and Pero" |
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 "Roman Charity" |
 "Cimon and Pero" |
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[edit] Notes and References
- ^ "Iconographical sources of nursing and nursing gestures in Christian cultures," http://www.darkfiber.com/pz/chapter3.html (last visited 29 March 2006)
- ^ The Online Getty Museum, http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=135448, (last visited 28 March 2006)
- ^ Shearer West, "Guide To Art." Bloomsbury, 1996 http://www.bloomsbury.com/ARC/detail.asp?EntryID=98329&bid=1, (accessed 29 March 2006)
- ^ Arthur K. Wheelock, "Vermeer & the Art of Painting." http://www.artchive.com/vermeer/vermeer1.html (accessed March 29, 2006)
[edit] External links
- Memorable Acts and Sayings of the Ancient Romans, Book Nine, in Latin
- "The Female Breast as a Source of Charity: Artistic Depictions of Caritas Romana", an essay by Golda Balass, a lecturer in the Department of Art History at Tel Aviv University
- Stargate Libraries Gallery
- [1] Steinbeck, Grapes of Wrath
