Charity, from the Cardinal Virtues

Charity, from the Cardinal Virtues

Nicolaes de Bruyn

An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art

The female figure Charity is depicted holding a child in her arms (to her left side) and is flanked by two standing children, framed in an oval. Surrounding the oval, ornament design with a hanging group of two fish and a lobster to the left and right side, with burning lamps below. At bottom left and right corners, foxes on their hind legs. From a series of four plates.

Drawings and Prints

An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art

Charity, from the Cardinal VirtuesCharity, from the Cardinal VirtuesCharity, from the Cardinal VirtuesCharity, from the Cardinal VirtuesCharity, from the Cardinal Virtues

The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.