Caritas: Johanna de Geer (1629-91) with her children Cecilia Trip (1660-1728) and Laurens Trip (b 1662)

Ferdinand Bol's Caritas from 1664, depicting Johanna de Geer with her children, is a portrait-historié that combines family portraiture with the personification of Christian Charity. Johanna de Geer was a member of one of the wealthiest families in the Dutch Republic, and the portrait's grand scale and allegorical pretensions reflect the patrician ambitions of Amsterdam's mercantile elite. Bol's Rijksmuseum painting demonstrates how Dutch portraiture could serve as a vehicle for both family commemoration and moral aspiration.

Bol's polished technique renders the mother and children as an idealized group, with warm flesh tones and carefully rendered textiles. The smooth, classicizing style of his late period moves further from Rembrandt's rough expressiveness toward the elegant finish demanded by wealthy Amsterdam patrons.