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Charity
Andrea del Sarto·before 1530
Historical Context
Del Sarto's Charity, painted before 1530 and now in the National Gallery of Art, depicts the theological virtue personified as a woman with children — the maternal figure nursing or gathering children representing the giving of spiritual and material love. The allegorical personification of virtues provided painters with opportunities to depict the female figure in a context simultaneously ideal and sensuous, the beautiful woman with children combining the appeal of genre subject with theological significance. Del Sarto's Charity reflects his mature style's combination of Leonardesque sfumato with a warm, monumental figure type that was the distinctive Florentine contribution to the High Renaissance figure tradition.
Technical Analysis
Del Sarto's oil on panel demonstrates his celebrated sfumato technique with soft, warm flesh tones and the effortless grace that made him the supreme technical painter of the Florentine High Renaissance.
Provenance
Commissioned by Giambattista della Palla, agent for the King of France, who was apparently imprisoned before the painting was completed. The widow of Andrea del Sarto [d. 1530]; Domenico Conti, Florence, by 1550;[1] Niccolò Antinori, Florence, by 1550 until at least 1568. Bastiano Antinori, Florence, by 1584.[2] Pallavicini-Rospigliosi collection, Rome, by 1826-1827, when it was sold by Countess Camilla Compagnoni-Marefoschi [1782-1862] to John Proctor Anderdon, London and Farley Hall, Berkshire, England;[3] (Anderdon sale, Christie's, London, 15 May 1847, no. 34, bought in); (Anderdon sale, Christie's, London, 24 May 1851, no. 66, bought in). (Anonymous sale, London, 1856, bought in). Possibly P. Hinds, in 1859. (Anonymous sale, London, 1860); possibly purchased by Ripp.[4] Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro of Novar [d. 1865], London and Novar, Highland, Scotland; (Munro sale, Christie's, London, 1 June 1878, no. 101); purchased by Permain. Presumably Thomas Humphrey Ward [1845-1926], Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England; (David M. Koetser Gallery, New York, London, and Zurich); sold 1954 to the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[5] gift 1957 to NGA. [1] According to G. Vasari, _Le Vite, Milan_, 1880: 5:50. [2] According to Raffaelle Borghini, _Il Riposo di Raffaelle Borghini_, originally published 1584, reprint Milan, 1807: 2:226 [3] According to the exhibition catalogue _Fine Arts in the United Kingdom_ (British Institution, London, 1828:13, no. 29), the work came “from the Ruspogliosi [sic] Gallery in Rome,” a reference to the collection of the Pallavicini-Rospigliosi family. An article on the Anderdon collection in the _Art Union_ (vol. 8, December 1846, p. 328) mentions that Anderdon purchased the work from the Rospigliosi palace on a trip to Rome in 1827. Christie’s catalogues of 1847 and 1851, however, put the purchase date at 1826. Both state that it came from the Rospigliosi palace and indicate that Anderdon acquired it from the countess, who was the eldest daughter of Prince Luigi Pallavicini [1756-1835] and probably acted as the agent for selling the painting from the family collection. Copies of article and sales catalogues in curatorial files. [4] On the preceding two sales, see G. Redford, _Art Sales_, London, 1888: 2:251 and A. Graves, _Art Sales From Early in the Eighteenth Century to Early in the Twentieth Century_, London, 1921: 3:140. [5] According to W.E. Suida and F.R. Shapley, _Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection_, Washington, 1956: 22. See also The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/478.
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