This painting exemplifies the refinement of Reni’s much admired style. The canvas comes from the Liechtenstein collection in Vienna, where it was recorded in 1767. It may have been commissioned or bought in Italy by Prince Karl Eusebius von Liechtenstein (1611–1684), who travelled to Italy in 1629–30. The allegorical figure of Charity follows the well-established iconographical model of a woman breastfeeding a group of children.

Reni's depiction of Charity derives from Cesare's Ripa's Iconologia, a standard source book on iconology first published in Rome in 1593, with an illustrated edition appearing in 1603. It was widely used throughout Europe. Among the ways of giving an allegorical representation of Charity, Ripa suggests the following: "A woman dressed in red; she has flames of fire on her head, holds in her left hand a nursing child while two others play at her feet, one of which holds her right hand. . . ." Ripa notes that the red signifies blood, since according to Saint Paul true charity extends to the sacrifice of blood. Reni's depiction accommodates the basics features of Ripa's emblematic personification to the requisites of verisimilitude, eliminating the flames and showing Charity as a beautiful woman with a rose-colored dress and three children, one of which nurses while another, satiated, sleeps and the third points to the action of its sibling.

Reni painted an earlier version of Charity: an upright oval composition in the Galleria Palatina, Florence. That work has traditionally been connected with a document of 1607, although it may date somewhat later [see D. Stephen Pepper, "Caravaggio and Guido Reni: Contrasts in Attitudes," Art Quarterly 34 (Fall 1971), p. 342 n. 34]. Its use of strong contrasts of light and shadow and more robust figure types reflect the influence of Caravaggio. By contrast, the Metropolitan's picture, which dates about 1630, is painted in high-keyed colors with faint shadows rendered in light tonalities. The figures are more expansive and painterly, their proportions more robust, and there is a far greater sense of the interval of space between them.

Key to the dating is a fresco of a sleeping cupid painted by Reni for Cardinal Francesco Barberini in January 1629 (Palazzo Barberini, Rome). The Cupid is posed identically to the sleeping child in the Charity. This figure was repeated in a Holy Family by Carlo Cignani (Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen), demonstrating the prestige of Reni's depiction in Bologna during the seventeenth century, before its sale to the Liechtenstein collection, where it was first catalogued in 1767 [see, further, Robert Enggass, "Variations on a Theme by Guido Reni," Art Quarterly 25 (Summer 1962), pp. 113–21].

[2011; adapted from Ref. Fahy 2005]

Joseph Wenzel, Prince of Liechtenstein (by 1767–d. 1772; cat., 1767, no. 498, as by Guido Reni); Princes of Liechtenstein, Vienna (1772–1858; cat., 1780, no. 581, as by Guido Reni); Johann II, Prince of Liechtenstein, Vienna (1858–82; cat., 1873, no. 62; sale, Hôtel Drouot, Paris, May 16, 1882, no. 21, as by Guido Reni, for Fr 820); private collection, Paris (until about 1933; as by or attributed to Simon Vouet; sold to Reder); Mr. and Mrs. Jacob Reder, Brussels, later New York (about 1933–64; as attributed to Simon Vouet; sold to French & Co.); [French & Co., New York, 1964; as attributed to Simon Vouet; sold to Wildenstein]; [Wildenstein, New York, 1964–68; as by Guido Reni; sold to Wrightsman]; Mr. and Mrs. Charles Wrightsman, New York (1968–74)

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Patterns of Collecting: Selected Acquisitions, 1965–1975," December 6, 1975–March 23, 1976, unnumbered cat.

Vincenzio Fanti. Descrizzione completa di tutto cio che ritrovarsi nella galleria di pittura e scultura di sua altezza Giuseppe Wenceslao del S.R.I. principe regnante della casa di Lichtenstein. Vienna, 1767, p. 98, no. 498, lists in the collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein: "La Carità co' suoi tre Fanciulli, uno che poppa, e l'altro che scherza, e'l terzo che dorme, di Guido Reni. 4 piedi 4 once x 3 piedi 4 once" [Charity with three infants, one that nurses, another that plays, and a third that sleeps, by Guido Reni] .

Abbate Luccini. Déscription des tableaux et des pièces de sculpture que renferme la Gallerie de son altesse François Joseph de Liechtenstein. Vienna, 1780, p. 175, no. 581.

G. Parthey. "L–Z." Deutscher Bildersaal. 2, Berlin, 1864, p. 350, no. 141.

G. F. Waagen. Die vornehmsten Kunstdenkmäler in Wien. part 1, Vienna, 1866, p. 261, lists a "Caritas" by Guido Reni in the collection of Prince Liechtenstein, adding that the green tone of the mother, the greenish tone of the one child and the rosy tone of the others, and the exuberance of the figures, are all indicative of the master's later, less accomplished period.

Jakob von Falke. Katalog der Fürstlich Liechtensteinischen Bildergallerie im Gartenpalais der Rossau zu Wien. Vienna, 1873, p. 9, no. 62.

Elizabeth Henschel-Simon. Die Gemälde und Skulpturen in der Bildergalerie von Sanssouci. Berlin, 1930, p. 25, identifies the "Caritas" attributed to Reni in the picture gallery at Sanssouci, Potsdam (no. 78), as a replica of our picture .

Ann Sutherland Harris. "Florentine Sunset." Art News 68 (1969), p. 61.

D. Stephen Pepper. "A Rediscovered Painting by Guido Reni." Apollo 90 (September 1969), pp. 208–13, ill. (color, overall and details), credits Charles Sterling and, subsequently, Anthony Clark, with the reattribution of the picture to Guido Reni; on stylistic grounds, dates the picture to about 1628–30, and sees a clue to its dating the the color, used "to differentiate between the child who is still hungry and the others whose appetites have been assuaged"; notes that its provenance can only be traced back to the eighteenth century.

Edi Baccheschi in L'opera completa di Guido Reni. Milan, 1971, p. 89, no. 35b, ill., proposes a date of around 1630; observes that there is no documentary evidence to support the identification of the picture with the "famous Charity formerly owned by the Bolognetti family" seen by Malvasia at the Palazzo Barberini, Rome [see Malvasia, The Life of Guido Reni, english ed. 1980, p.149]; identifies the "Charity" in a private collection in Milan, previously thought to be the original, as a copy after Reni .

Catherine Johnston. Il seicento e il settecento a Bologna. Milan, 1971, p. 83, connects the study of a sleeping baby by Reni at the Teylers Museum, Haarlem, with the Wrightsman picture; dates both the drawing and the painting towards the end of the 1620s.

Everett Fahy in "Paintings, Drawings." The Wrightsman Collection. 5, [New York], 1973, pp. 170–80, no. 19, ill. (overall in color and details), dates the picture about 1630, calling it an "Allegory of Charity"; suggests the painting was purchased in Italy around 1630 by Prince Karl Eusebio von Liechtenstein, who travelled extensively between 1629 and 1631, gathering the nucleus of his collection; relates Reni's picture to a local Bolognese convention of half- and three-quarter length views of Charity looking to one side; considers it unlikely that the different complexions of the three children have symbolic meaning, as Reni habitually varied the flesh colors in his paintings .

Anthony M. Clark in The Metropolitan Museum of Art: Notable Acquisitions, 1965–1975. New York, 1975, p. 96, ill., observes that the figure of Charity wears a rose red dress to recall Christ's sacrificial blood.

Götz Eckardt. Die Gemälde in der Bildergalerie von Sanssouci. Potsdam, 1975, pp. 55–56, ill.

Howard Hibbard. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1980, p. 295, fig. 531 (color).

Veronika Birke. Guido Reni, Zeichnungen. Exh. cat., Graphische Sammlung Albertina. Vienna, 1981, pp. 140–42, ill., calls the Tylers Museum drawing a study for our picture, which she places probably several years later, about 1630.

D. Stephen Pepper. Guido Reni: A Complete Catalogue of his Works with an Introductory Text. New York, 1984, pp. 31, 261, no. 124, pl. 151.

Ursula Schlegel. "Bernini und Guido Reni." Jahrbuch der Berliner Museen 27 (1985), p. 141.

D. Stephen Pepper in The Age of Correggio and the Carracci: Emilian Painting of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries. Exh. cat.Washington, 1986, p. 514.

Marìa-Elisabeth Brunnbauer in Guido Reni und Europa: Ruhm und Nachruhm. Exh. cat., Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt. Frankfurt, 1988, p. 468, publishes the engraving after this painting by the British printmaker John Keyse Sherwin (finished by J. Parker).

Robert B. Simon with Frank Dabell in Important Old Master Paintings: Devotion and Delight. Exh. cat., Piero Corsini, Inc. New York, Fall 1989, pp. 84–85, ill.

Anthony Colantuono. Guido Reni's "Abduction of Helen": The Politics and Rhetoric of Painting in Seventeenth-Century Europe. Cambridge, 1997, pp. 8–9, ill., suggests that the stern look given by Charity to the robust infant who points to her breast, as if to demand more, serves to express a subtle moral conceit: that charity must be not only generous but equitable .

Richard E. Spear. The "Divine" Guido: Religion, Sex, Money and Art in the World of Guido Reni. New Haven, 1997, p. 231, ill. (detail).

Keith Christiansen. "Going for Baroque: Bringing 17th-Century Masters to the Met." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 62 (Winter 2005), pp. 30, 32, fig. 27 (color).

Everett Fahy in The Wrightsman Pictures. New York, 2005, pp. 45–49, no. 12, ill. (color), lists six copies after this composition.

Keith Christiansen in Philippe de Montebello and The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1977–2008. New York, 2009, p. 37.

Everett Fahy [see Ref. 2005] lists six copies after this picture:

Feversham collection, Duncombe Park, Yorkshire (sale, Henry Spencer & Sons, Nottingham, April 7, 1959, no. 95).

private collection, Milan (in 1961). Oil on canvas, 50 3/8 x 41 3/8 in.

Bildergalerie, Potsdam (1971 catalogue, no. 10). Oil on canvas, 55 1/2 x 42 7/8 in.

F. Echave, Rome (in 1972).

Palazzo Barberini, Rome (from the Bolognetti collection, Bologna). Mentioned by Carlo Cesare Malvasia, "Felsina pittrice: vite de' pittori bolognesi" (Bologna, 1678), vol. 2, p. 90. Its composition, however is unknown.

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Tours (794-1-31). From the Château de Chanteloup.

An engraving of Charity by Benoit Farjat (1646–1720) is inscribed "Guido Reni dip . . . Gio. Bat. Calandrucci dis.," but no other record of this composition survives [see Ref. Fahy 2005, ill. p. 49, fig. 5].