Charity

Charity is an oil on canvas painting by Guido Reni, created possibly in 1629–1630. It is held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York, to which it was donated by Mr and Mrs Charles Wrightsman in 1974. The work is first recorded in a 1767 inventory of the collection of Joseph Wenzel I, Prince of Liechtenstein. It remained in the princely collection until Johann II, Prince of Liechtenstein auctioned it in Paris on 16 May 1882.

It then remained in a Parisian private collection until about 1933 with as misattribution to Simon Vouet, after which it passed through two art dealers before being bought in New York by the Wrightsmans in 1968.

Executed in Oil on canvas, measuring 54 x 41 3/4 in. (137.2 x 106 cm), the surface rewards close looking. Guido Reni builds the composition through layered glazes and a tightly controlled palette, letting cool shadows recede so that the warm, lit passages step forward. The brushwork shifts from the precise to the almost dissolved — a hallmark of mature Baroque practice.

“A silence so complete it becomes its own witness.”