Charity with Four Children

{{Infobox artwork

| title = Charity with Four Children

| image_file =Gianlorenzo bernini, bozzetti della collezione chigi, carità, 1627-28.JPG

| image_upright = 1

| artist = Gian Lorenzo Bernini

| catalogue = 30

| year = 1627–1628

| type = Sculpture

| material = Terracotta

| subject = Charity

| height_metric = 39

| metric_unit = cm

| imperial_unit = in

| city = Vatican City

| museum = Vatican Museums

| coordinates = {{coord|41|54|23|N|12|27|16|E|display=it}}

| preceded_by = Statue of Carlo Barberini

| followed_by = Two Busts of Cardinal Scipione Borghese

}}

Charity with Four Children also called Charity With Four Putti[Schuder] is a sculpture by the Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Executed between 1627 and 1628, the work is housed in the Vatican Museums in Vatican City. The small terracotta sculpture represents Charity breast-feeding a child, with three other children playing. The work includes an imprint of Bernini's thumbprint in the clay.

Background

The sculpture is an allegorical group, and was created as a model for the tomb of Pope Urban VIII.{{Cite journal |last=Gibson |first=Eric |date=Dec 2012 |title=Bernini's feats of clay |url=http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Bernini-s-feats-of-clay-7501 |journal=The New Criterion |volume=31 |issue=4 |pages=1-4}} It is sixteen inches high, is made from terracotta clay, and represents Charity breast-feeding a child, with three other children playing. Its creation date is uncertain: Raggio dates the sculpture’s execution to between 1627 and 1628, although others have suggested it may have been created closer to 1630,{{Cite thesis|title=Bernini and Before: Modeled Sculpture in Rome, ca. 1600-25|first=Claude Douglas |last=Dickerson, III |publisher=Institute of Fine Arts, New York University |type=Phd thesis|quote=Raggio (1983) has argued that it dates from 1627-28, when Bernini was first engaged on his tomb of Urban VIII. But with the actual carving of the figure not being undertaken until 1634, it seems possible that the first model for this figure may not have come until the early 1630s.}}{{Cite news |last=Schudel |first=Matt |date=2003-08-24 |title=The Look of Faith: The Splendid 'Saint Peter and the Vatican' reveals the 2,000 year-old artistic heritage of the Catholic Church in all its majesty and glory |url=https://www.proquest.com/newspapers/look-faith-splendid-saint-peter-vatican-reveals-2/docview/387810947/se-2 |url-access=subscription |access-date=3 April 2025 |work=South Florida Sun - Sentinel |via=ProQuest}} or not later than 1634.{{Cite web |title=Working models - ProQuest |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/1323690982 |access-date=2025-04-03 |website=www.proquest.com |language=en}}{{Cite journal |last=Cole |first=Michael |date=2013 |title=Working models |url=https://www.proquest.com/magazines/working-models/docview/1323690982/se-2 |journal=Apollo |volume=177 |pages=77-79 |url-access=subscription |via=ProQuest}}

There is an imprint of Bernini's thumbprint in the clay.{{cite book|last=Wittkower |first=Rudolf |title=Gian Lorenzo Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque |publisher=Phaidon Press |location=London |year=1997 |orig-year=1955 |isbn=9780714837154|pp=252–253}}{{Cite web |date=2022-05-30 |title=Bernini’s fingerprint: the unique signature of the artist, vatican museum tour |url=https://www.essenceofrome.com/berninis-fingerprint-the-unique-signature-of-the-artist/ |access-date=2025-04-03 |website=Essence of Rome |language=en-US}}

History

The work is housed in the Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana in the Vatican Museums in Vatican City.

It was included in the touring exhibition Saint Peter and the Vatican: The Legacy of the Popes, which opened in Fort Lauderdale in August 2003. One reviewer called it “The most artistically rewarding work in the show...this delicate sculpture of a mother and infant is alive with movement and human feeling. It possesses an intimacy that comes from the actual touch of Bernini's hand; on the back, you can see the indentations his fingers made in the clay.”

File:S. Peter, Rome, Italy. (2831669868).jpg

In 2012 the sculpture featured in Bernini: Sculpting in Clay at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. It was the earliest work included in the show.

Notes

References

{{cite book|last=Avery |first=Charles |title= Bernini: Genius of the Baroque |publisher=Thames and Hudson |location=London |year=1997 |isbn=9780500286333}}
{{cite book|last=Baldinucci |first=Filippo |title=The Life of Bernini |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |location=University Park |year=2006 |orig-year=1682 |isbn=9780271730769}}
{{cite book|last=Bernini |first=Domenico |title=The Life of Giano Lorenzo Bernini |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |location=University Park |year=2011 |orig-year=1713 |isbn=9780271037486}}
{{cite book|last=Mormando |first=Franco |title=Bernini: His Life and His Rome |publisher=University of Chicago Press |location=Chicago |year=2011 |isbn=9780226538525}}

External links

[http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/b/bernini/gianlore/sculptur/1620/charity.html Web Gallery of Art]
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Category:1620s sculptures

Category:Sculptures by Gian Lorenzo Bernini

Category:Terracotta sculptures

Category:Sculptures of children in Vatican City

Category:Sculptures in the Vatican Museums

Category:Sculptures of women in Vatican City