Charity Instructing the Poor. Concepts and Practices of Education Reflected in Images of Charity

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HANNEKE VAN ASPEREN

Charity Instructing the PoorConcepts and Practices of Education Reflected in Images of Charity

The personification of Charity reflects changingattitudes towards the poor and the destitute. Oneparticular statue by Lorenzo Bartolini (1777-1850) is highly significant in the development ofa new image of Charity, not because it is the firstwork to use a new iconography, but becausewhen it appeared, the statue was described asCarita educatrice or Charity the educator (fig. i).The traditional figure of Charity holds an infant,but Bartolini has introduced a new child agedeight or nine whom Charity is teaching. Thechanges in the image relate to the educationalreforms that had become the subject of public de-bate in the seventeenth and eighteenth century asa result of the influential writings of such thinkersas John Locke and Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Thedebate was not solely about education in generalbut focused on the education of the poor, by thenan important element of charitable work. Readingand writing increasingly featured in the curric-ulum offered to orphans and the children of thepoor. To reflect this emerging belief and practicein the education of the poor, artists looked for

i A rough outline can never do justice to the complexityof the figure that was depicted in many different waysthroughout the centuries. Especially the iconography ofCharity in the Middle Ages and the sixteenth centuryhas received much attention. The development of imageof Charity after this date has received little attention sofar. It was prof. dr. Annelies van Heijst who pointed outthis lacuna and initiated this research. On the iconog-raphy of Charity, see Adolphe Napoleon Didron, Ico-nographie de la Charite, in: Annales Archeologiques 21,mars-avril, 1861-1862, $7-66; idem, La Charite, in:Annales Archeologiques 21, janvier-fevrier, 1861 -1 862,5-17; Emile Male, L 'Art Religieux de la Fin du MoyenAge en France, Paris 1931, 309-328; Edgar Wind, Char-ity. The Case History of a Pattern, in: Journal of theWarburg Institute i, 4, 1938, 322-330; Robert Freyhan,The Evolution of the Caritas Figure in the Thirteenthand Fourteenth Centuries, in: Journal of the Warhurgand Courtauld Institutes 11, 1948, 68-86; Maria vanThadden, Die Ikonographie der Caritas in derKunst desMittelalters, Bonn 1951; Maria Wellershoff-von Thad-

new sources of inspiration for their portrayal ofCharity. Images of St Anne who, since the four-teenth century had been associated with (female)literacy and the role of women in early childhoodeducation, were especially influential. When theState adopted responsibility for the poor, the edu-cation elements of the iconography were incorpo-rated into secular images of government.

The history of the iconography of Charity islong and complex. ' During the fourteenth cen-tury, Italian artists such as Nicola and GiovanniPisano, Giovanni Balducci and Tino di Camaino,looked for new ways of depicting the personifica-tion of Charity. Her iconography had becomemerely emblematic, with little focus on action orcharitable acts. These artists looked to the con-

temporary literature of profane love for inspira-tion.2 And so, as with images of the goddess oflove, Charity is now sometimes seen holding aburning heart, a bundle of flames or a candle.3Sometimes she wears a crown of flames, the firesymbolizing her passionate longing for unitywith God. An upturned gaze, or a finger pointing

den, Caritas, in: Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstge-schichte, Wolfgang Augustyn and Klaus Lepsky, eds.,vol. 3, Munich 1952, cols. 343-356; Miklos Boskovitsand Maria Wellershoff, Caritas, in: Lexikon der christ-lichen Ikonographie, Engelbert Kirschbaum, ed., 8 vols.,Rome 1968-76^0!. i, cols. 349-352; Emile Male, Reli-gious Art in France. The Twelfth Century. A Study of theOrigins of Medieval Iconography, Princeton 1978, 440-^^; idem. Religious Art in France. The Thirteenth Cen-tury. A Study of Medieval Iconography and Its Sources,Princeton 1984, 116-118; 'William R. Levin, The Ico-nography of Charity Redux: The Origins of Two Little-Known Symbols for Amor Proximi in Fifteenth-Cen-tury Italian Art, in: Fifteenth-Century Studies 20, 1993,ii9-i99> Michaela Bautz, Virtittes. Studien zu Funk-tion und Ikonogmphie der Tugenden im Mittelalter undim l6. Jahrhttndert, Berlin 1999, 251-259; Colum Hou-rihane, ed., Virtue and Vice: The Personifications in theIndex of Christian Art, Princeton 2000, 160-171.

2 Freyhan (as note i).3 Levin (as note i).

ZEITSCHRIFT FUR KUNSTGESCHICHTE 76. Band/ 2013 541

i. Lorenzo Bartolini, Carita educatrice, marble, 1842 50. Amsterdam, Rljksmuseum, BK-2oo8-$-A

H2 ZEITSCHRIFT FUR KUNSTGESCHICHTE 76. Band/20I3

upwards, indicates her orientation towards hea-ven. Around that time, artists started to portrayCharity with infants, often breastfeeding one ofthem. The symbolism is complex. Charity wasregarded as the mother of all virtues and themother figure symbolizes unconditional love parexcellence. Infants are needy, always requiringhelp and assistance, but more than simply a refer-ence to feeding the hungry and helping the needy,the presence of the children also visualizes thedependence of the human soul on God for spir-itual nourishment. Children became inseparablybound up with the figure of Charity. In 1593,Cesare Ripa described the ways in which differentpersonifications should be depicted. 4 His hand-book, Iconologia, saw several reprints in differentlanguages, and was used by artists as a guide untilwell into the eighteenth century. Ripa's descrip-tion of Charity is typical and harks back to along-established and influential tradition: »Awoman dressed in red who has a flame of burningfire on top of her head; she is holding an infant onher right arm whom she is nursing and two othersare playing at her feet; one of them is holding theleft hand of the aforementioned figure«s (fig. 2).

Lorenzo Bartolini and his Carita educatrice

In 1817, the Italian sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini(i777-I85°) was commissioned to make animage of Charity for the Villa Poggio, just outsidethe Porta Romana in Florence.6 The building wasbeing renovated in neoclassical style for the for-mer Grand Duchess of Tuscany, Elisa BonaparteBaciocchi, but she was forced to abdicate and therenovations were never completed. The plaster

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2. Anonymous, woodcut of Charity, from: CesareRipa, Iconologia, nella quale si descrivono diverse

imagini..., Volume I, Siena: Eredi di Matteo Florimi,1613, 99. Heidelberg, Ruprecht Karls Universitat,

Universitatsbibliothek, 87 A 6866 RES:: i

image of Charity, which was finished in 1822(now at the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence),7was later executed in Carrara marble and in 1836Bartolini sold his marble to Grand Duke Leo-

pold II of Tuscany for 20, 000 lire after which it

4 Gerlind Werner, Ripa's Iconologia. Quellen-Methode-2;e/e, Utrecht 1977; Yassu Okayama, The Ripa index.Personifications and their attributes in five editions ofthe Iconologia, Doornspijk 1992, 31-32; Frank Blittnerand Andrea Gottdang, Einfiihrung in die Ikonographie.Wege zur Deutung von Bildinhalten, Munich 2006,151-15$.

5 »Donna vestita di rosso, che in cima del capo habbia unafiamma di fuoco ardente, terra nel bracco destro un fan-ciullo, al quale dia il latte, &: due altri gli staranno scher-zando a piedi, uno d'essi terra alia detta figura abbrac-

ciata la sinistra mano«. Ripa, Iconologia, ..., Siena 1613,100.

6 Margreet Boomkamp, Bartolini's Carita Educatrice:Politics and Iconography in Nineteenth-Century Tus-cany, in: The Rijksmnseum Bulletin 57, 2009, 202-215;Franca Falletti, Silvestra Bietoletti, et al., eds., LorenzoBartolini. Beauty and Truth in Marble, Milan 2011, 306-309 an(i the literature mentioned there.

7 According to Falletti and Bietoletti, Bartoloni probablyfinished the statue in 1822, but it was definitely ready in1823. Falletti/Bietoletti (as note 6), 306.


was added to the collection of the Galleria Pala-

tina. When Bartolini designed his statue for thechapel at the ducal villa he drew, of course, fromCesare Ripa's description of Charity but addedsome intriguing - and controversial - elements ofhis own. He depicted two children of differentages: the young woman holds a sleeping infant onher right arm and with her left hand she points toa scroll in the hands of another, older, boy. Mar-greet Boomkamp pointed out the unusual rendi-tion of the figure when the Rijksmuseum ac-quired a copy from the artist's own hand (fig. i).8The Italian biographical dictionary Treccani alsostates that the Charity group moves away fromthe traditional schemes.9 How unusual was thisiconography and what instigated it?

In 1848 Bartolini himself referred to his statueas a »political« sculpture. In a letter to his friendGiovanni Benericetti Talenti, inspector of theAcademy of Fine Arts of Florence, he wrote thatthough the sculpture had encountered much op-position at the time, it would »one day be judgedas a political sculpture that embodies the truemeaning of the Gospel. « Boomkamp has sug-gested that the relatively liberal political environ-ment in Florence under Bonaparte rule inspiredBartolini's figure of Charity and that Bartolini -a Bonapartist at heart - saw his figure of Charityas an outcome of the relative artistic freedom af-

forded by the regime. 10 However, by the time themarble statue of Charity was finished in 1836, thesituation in Florence had changed drastically.Despite the rapid and radical changes in the polit-ical climate, contemporaries of Bartolini contin-ued to comment on the educational content of theCharity figure. In 1836, the group was baptizedCarita educatrice. 11 Lorenzo Bartolini made the

copy, now at the Rijksmuseum, between 1842 and

S Boomkamp (as note 6), 205.9 »I1 gruppo della Carita educatrice - che insegna cole a

leggere, allontanandosi dallo schema tradizionale - fusubito apprezzata per la sua >filosofia< negli ambienti enei circoli toscani illuminati e progressisti, e piacque algranduca Leopoldi II, che 1'acquisto per un certo suoallusivo contenuto di evangelismo laico. « Diziona-rioBiografico, Lorenzo Bartolini, in: www. treccani. it, Trec-cani, Online. Accessed 03/02/2012.

18 50 - apparently the image was as relevant in the18408 as it had been in the 18203. He did makesome minor revisions: the biggest change is thetext on the scroll in the boy's hands.12 The earlierversion was a Latin translation of a biblical extract

about loving God and one's neighbor (Luke10:27). The new version reads »Non fare ad altriquel che non vuoi sia fatto a te« paraphrasing theGospels of Luke (6:27) and Matthew (7:12). Whydid Bartolini depict Charity in this way? Whatwere his sources of inspiration? Was the imageexceptional? Was it a topical image - or was itmerely a typical one? The iconographical sourcesfor the figure of Charity used by Bartolini shedsome light on the ideas that the artist wanted toexpress.

Education of the poor

It may actually have been contemporary viewson educating the poor - rather than the liberal cli-mate in Florence - that prompted Bartolinl to fo-cus on the changing face of charity. Since the pub-lication in 1693 of John Locke's Some ThoughtsConcerning Education, the wider social benefit ofproviding early childhood education had beenrecognized.13 In the United Kingdom the educa-tion of poor children had been driven by the eco-nomic pressures of expanding cities and thegrowth of service industries.14 Locke was a majorinfluence on every European writer on educationand his essay was translated into several Europeanlanguages; the first French edition dates from1695. Locke focused on the education of themiddle and upper classes, but in the introductionto the first French edition Pierre Coste wrote »it

is certain that this Work was particularly designedfor the education of English Gentlemen, but this

io Boomkamp (as note 6), 211-212.il Ibid., 210.

12 Falletti/Bietoletti (as note 6), 308.;3 John W. Yolton, /oAn Loc^e a.nd Education, New York

I97I> 37r3^> Jacl Smith, Charity Education and theSpectacle of >Christian Entertainments in: The Cul-ture of the Gift in Eighteenth-Century England, Cyn-thia Klekar and Linda Zionkowski. eds.. New York2009, 37-54; here 86-87.

544 ZEITSCHRIFT FUR KUNSTGESCHICHTE 76. Band/2013

does not prevent its serving also 1-or the educationof all sorts of Children, of whatever class theyare. «15 Locke reflected on the education of thelower classes in his Essay on the Poor Law. Hesuggested parishes would benefit by setting up»working schools « for poor children and that theschools would develop the work ethic in children.Moral training was important, not only for theupper classes, but for the whole of society. InDiscourse on Political Economy published in 17^ 5,Jean-Jacques Rousseau echoed Locke when hewrote: »Make the citizen good by training andeverything else will follow«. In Emile, ou I'Edu-cation of 1762, Rousseau wrote about individualeducation, but he was also clearly interested inpublic education.

Even though Locke's ideas on education re-mained influential, views on the education ofpoor children had changed by the end of the eigh-teenth century. Charity schools were not capableof providing education on a scale that could tack-Ie the problems of urban growth.16 The Sundayschool in the United Kingdom was an attempt tofind a solution. As with charity schools, the inten-tion was primarily moral and religious, but Sun-day schools were a mass phenomenon and pro-vided a wider basis for rudimentary literacy pro-grams, simply because many more children couldbe admitted. In France there were also initiatives

to meet the requirements of national education,such as the Comite d'education nationale. 17

From the sixteenth century, the education ofyoung girls had been largely the responsibility ofgroups of religious women. 18 The Order of theUrsulines, founded by St Angela de Merici anddevoted to the education of women, originated inItaly but quickly spread over Europe. Devotedto the education of women, the Ursulines often

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3. Anonymous, »Elles instruise les enfan(ts) despauvres familles«, coloured engraving, in: Abecede

dedie aux vertns admirables des Soeurs de la Charite,c. 1770. Rouen, Musee national de 1'Education,

mv. 1979. 3047

started schools for girls within the walls of theirnumerous convents. The Congregation de laMere de Dieu founded in 1648 and responsiblefor much of the education of poor orphan girls inFrance during Napoleon's reign and the Soeurs dela Charite, founded by Vincent de Paul and Lou-ise de Marillac which dedicated itself to orphansand to the instruction of the poor (fig. 3) were allsignificant providers of education for the poor.Interestingly, both Vincent de Paul and Louise deMarillac are often depicted as »personifications«of Charity using exactly the same visual forinatthat had been used for the allegorical depiction ofCharity. They carry a sleeping infant on one armwhile another child stands at their side.

14 Malcolm Seaborne, The English School. Its architectureand organization 13/0-1870, London 1971, 103-107.

15 John Locke, De ['education des enfans, translated byPierre Coste, Amsterdam 1695: »I1 est certain que cetOuvrage est particulierement destine pour 1'Educationde la Noblesse Anglpise, mais cela n'empeche pas qu'ilne puisse servir a. 1 Education de toute forte d'Enfans,de quelque conditions qu'ils soient.«

16 Seaborne (as note 14), 105-107; Pamela Silver and

Harold Silver, The Education of the Poor. The Historyof a National School, 1824-1974, London 1974, 6-y.

i/ Catherine Duprat, Le temps des philanthropes. Laphi-lanthropie pa-risienne des Lumieres a. la monarchie deJuillet, Paris 1993, 262-265.

18 Annelies van Heijst, Marjet Derks, et al.. Ex caritate.Kloosterleven, afostolaat en nieuvoe spirit van actievevrouwelijke religieuzen in Nederland in de ige en 2oeeeuw, Hilversum 2010, 70-73.

ZEITSCHRIFT FUR KUNSTGESCHICHTE 76. Band/2013 545

4. Anonymous (formerly attr. to Geoffrey Tory),St Anne instructing the Virgin, small miniature

on parchment in a book of hours, Latin,France (Touraine?), 1524. Washington, D.C.,

Library of Congress, Lessmg J. Rosenwald Collec-tion, Rosenwald Ms 10, fol. 116

St Anne, Rousseau and the role of mothers

Bartolini's statue of Charity has different visualsources. Lorenzo Bartolini is known for his fasci-

nation with quattrocento sculpture and his Caritaeducatrice has been designated one of his »overtly>quattrocento< statues«.19 Bartolini hints at thework of fifteenth-century artists like Jacopo dellaQuercia, Andrea del Verrocchio, Donatello, Ber-nardo Rossellino and Desiderio da Settignano.20As well Italian sculpture, his statue is similar toimages of St Anne instructing the Virgin. The ico-nography of the education of the Virgin was rel-atively unknown in Italy before the CounterReformation, but it was well-known in England,

$. Nicola. Pisano, pulpit base with the Liberal Arts,detail: Grammar teaching a child to read, marble,

1265-68. Siena Cathedral, north transept

France, Germany and the Low Countries. Some-times St Anne is adjusting the pen in the Virgin'shand to teach her how to write. Other times she is

pointing at words in a book, for example in aFrench book of hours, dated 1524, which is keptat the Library of Congress (fig. 4). " The finger ofSt Anne pointing at the book is indicative of herrole as teacher; this gesture which is common inimages of St Anne was picked up by Bartolini.Could Bartolini have come across these imageswhen he was in France?

St Anne had been associated with education

and literacy from the early fourteenth century on-wards, and specifically with female literacy andthe role of mothers as teachers. There is a clear

link with images of Grammatica as a womanteaching a child.22 Children who went to school

i9 John Kenworthy-Browne, Lorenzo Bartolini. PlasterModels and Drawings. Palazzo Pretorio, Prato, in:The Burlington Magazine 120, 902, special issue de-voted to the Victoria and Albert Museum, May 1978,338-339, here 338.

20 Dizionario Biografico, Lorenzo Bartolini, in: www.treccani. it, Treccani, Online. Accessed 03/02/2012.

2i For other relevant examples, see Fran^oise Baron,Louvre, Departement des sculptures du Moyen Age, de

la. Renaissance et des temps modernes.Sculpture Franfaise. Vol. I: Moyen Age, Paris 1996,18 6; Heilige Anna, grote moeder. De cultus van deHeilige Moeder Anna en haar fa-milie in de Neder-landen en aangrenzende streken. Museum voor Reli-gieuze Kunst, Uden 1992, 143; Beda Kleinschmidt,Die heilige Anna. Ihre Verehrung in Geschichte, Kunstund Volkstum, Diisseldorf 1930, 408-410.

22 Max Seidel, Ubera matris. Die vielschichtige Bedeu-


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6. Anonymous (Southern Netherlands), miniature of a woman teaching children and the ABC in capitalsand minuscules, in a prayer book with a primer, Dutch and Latin, c. 1445. London, The British Library,

Ms Harley 3828, fols. lyv-iSr

first had to deal with >grammatica< as part of the>trivium<, the three basic subjects of learning, to-gether with >dialectica< and >rhetorica<. Conse-quently, in Italy, also, Grammatica is often de-picted as a tutor of young children (fig. 5). A min-iature appearing in a prayer book for younggirls shows a woman in the role of educator(fig. 6). Four girls look at her as she teaches themto read from their books. The miniature precedes

the child's primer which integrated religious textssuch as the Pater Noster, Ave Maria and theCredo with the teaching of the alphabet.23 Thesebooks familiarized children with the shapes andsounds of individual letters and at the same time

introduced the prayers in Latin that were deemedessential and had to be memorized. While learn-

ing to read, the pupil was instructed in the faith.In line with this, images of St Anne teaching her

tung eines Symbols in der mittelalterlichen Kunst,in: Stadel-fahrbuch, Neue Folge, 6, 1977, 41-98, here50-56.

23 Kathryn Rudy, An Illustrated Mid-Fifteenth-CenturyPrimer for a Flemish Girl: British Library, Harley MS3828, in: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Insti-tutes 69, 2006, $1-93; Dagmar Eichberger, ed.. Womenof Distinction. Margaret of York, Margaret of Austria,Mechelen 2005, 267-268, no. 108; Pamela Sheingorn,

>The Wise Mothers The Image of St. Anne Teachingthe Virgin Mary, in: Gesta 32, i, 1993, 69-80, here 77.See also eadem. Appropriating the Holy Kinship, in:Interpreting Cultural Symbols. Saint Anne in LateMedieval Society, Kathleen Ashley and Pamela Shein-gorn, eds., Athens/London 1990, 169-198.


daughter from a book - which draw from thesame iconographical sources - were quite popularin the art of Northern Europe from the earlyfourteenth century onwards. As Pamela Shein-gorn convincingly argued, images of St Anneeducating did not just reflect the importance ofliteracy in those days, but also actively propagat-ed the role of women as both educators of child-

ren and as intellectuals who passed knowledgeon to the younger generation.24 Significantly, StAnn's in Soho, London, founded in 1699 and oneof the first charity schools in the United King-dom, was dedicated to the mother of the Virgin. 2?

The belief that it was a woman's role to educate

children extended well beyond the Middle Ages.The English sculptor and draughtsmanjohn Flax-man (1755-1826) dedicated himself to producingImages of women instructing children, e. g. themonument to Harriet Susan Fitzhams in Christ-

church where she is reading to her children. 26 Andit was because Napoleon still regarded the ele-mentary education of girls to be a mother's taskthat public education in reading and writing wasdeemed necessary, especially for children of thepoor and for girls without mothers.27 In 1787,Sarah Trimmer's Oeconomy of Charity - alterna-lively titled An Address to Ladies - argued infavor of teaching reading and religious principlesto the children of the poor, both boys and girls. 28Trimmer states that »the mother, who from mo-tives of pity instructs the children of the poor, willassuredly bring down the blessing of Heaven. «29Interestingly, Flaxman, when he exhibited his de-sign for a figure of Charity at the Royal Academyin 1819, gave it the alternative title of »Family Af-fection«.

^

7. John Flaxman, Charity, detail of the monumentto Countess Spencer, St Mary's, Great Brington

(Northamptonshire), 1816-19

Flaxman was a major influence on Bartolini.Even before he went to France, Bartolini probablyencountered Flaxman through his engravings.30Margreet Boomkamp has convincingly describedthe resemblance between Bartolini's statue and

24 Sheingorn 1993 (as note 23), 75.25 Dianne Payne, London's Charity School Children.

The >Scum of the Parish<?, in: British Journal forEighteenth- Century Studies 29, 2006, 383-397, here3^

26 David G. Irwin, John Flaxman, 17^-1826: sculptor,illustrator, designer, Ne-wYork 1979, 116-117.

2, Alexander I. Grab, Napoleon and the transformationof Europe, New York 2003, $6-57.

28 Doris Williams Elliott, The Gift of Education: SarahTrimmer's Oeconomy of Charity and the Sunday

School Movement, in: The Culture of the Gift inEighteenth-Centwy England, Cynthia Klekar andLinda Zionkowski, eds.. New York 2009, 107-122.

29 Ibid., 119.30 Gerard Hubert, Les scu. lpteu. rs italiens en France sous la

Revolution, I'Empire et la Restauration, 1790-1830,Paris iy6^, 70.

3i Boomkamp (as note 6), 205-207. Ettore Spalletti ex-presses his doubts about a direct influence of JohnFlaxman. Falletti and Bietoletti (as note 6), 306. Flax-man was extremely popular in France, however, as has


8. Bertel Thorvaldsen, Christian Charity,marble relief, 70 x 47 cm, c. 1810. Copenhagen,

Thorvaldsen Museum, inv. A$9/

Flaxman's figure of Charity or Family Affection(fig. /). 31 The position of the child's head on thearm of its mother is similar in Bartolini's

figure. The almost iconic image was used for themonument of Countess Spencer in St Mary's,Great Brington (Northamptonshire), and Flaxmanre-used the image on various occasions, e. g. on the

Edinburgh monument of Mary Arbuthnot in 1822and in a preparatory drawing for a monument inMaidenhead, Berkshire, which was probably neverexecuted, though the design was exhibited at theRoyal Academy in 1819.32 The intimate relation-ship between mother and sleeping child is demon-strated even more strongly in the image of Charityon a monument to Nathan Wetherell, Dean ofHereford, at University College, Oxford and asimilar treatment is found in the reliefs of Chris-

dan Charity by Bertel Thorvaldsen (fig. 8). How-ever, neither Flaxman's figures nor Thorvaldsen'sincorporate a reading child.

Apart from these, one of the most likely visualsources for Bartolini's statue of Charity was amonument to Jean-Jacques Rousseau, namedEmile after Rousseau's authoritative book on

education (fig. 9). Bartolini probably also cameinto contact with Rousseau's writings when hewas in France." The sculptor Frangois Massondepicted Rousseau using a scroll to teach an ado-lescent boy. He is depicted sitting down as is oftenSt Anne when she is educating her daughter. Onhis other side there is an image of a poor womanwith a child looking up at the eminent scholar,perhaps a figure of Charity as a reference to Rous-seau's views on education for the poor. The nudeadolescent is reminiscent of classical figures andserved as the prototype for the boy in Bartolini'ssculpture.

The parallels between Masson's Rousseau andBartolini's figure of Charity are noticeable. Themonument to Rousseau was finished in 1799, theyear Bartolini arrived in Paris, at a time whenthere was renewed interest in the Emile and the

educational theories it propounded.34 This monu-

been noted earlier. See for example Sarah Symmons,J.A. D. Ingres. The Apotheosis of Flaxman, in: TheBurlington Magazine 121, 920, 1979, 721-725 (plateson 731). Flaxman sent illustrations to acquaintancesin France. The French artist Jean Auguste DominiqueIngres, who was a student of David as was Bartolini,copied at least one Flaxman drawing in a French pri-vate collection and he might have owned a Flaxmandrawing himself.

32 Irwin (see note 26), 141-143. For the drawing, see TheBritish Museum Collection Database, »i888,o503.48«

ww-w. britishmuseum. org/collection, British Museum,Online. Accessed 16/02/2012.

33 Carlo Del Bravo, Bartolini interpretato con Jean-Jac-ques, in: Artibus et Historiae 14, 27, 1993, 141-152,here 142. According to Carlo Del Bravo who investi-gated the relation between the artist and Rousseau, theCharity gijoup reflects Bartolini's views on the role ofwomen in the procreation, the nursing, and the educa-tion of small children. Del Bravo focuses primarily onBartolini's artistic preferences and his focus on the bel-/ezzrf naturale to explicate Rousseau's influence.


was Tsar Alexander I's ambassador to the Grand

Duchy of Tuscany, had established a free primaryschool for needy children, which was to serve as amunicipal school until the second half of thetwentieth century. 36 Bartolini made repeated ref-erences to his benevolence including an inscrip-tion on the monument which praised him as an»untiring municipal benefactor«. 37 While the fig-ure of Mercy giving a needy girl a drink at thebase of the monument has been compared to thestatue of Carita educatrice, the image of NiccoloDemidoff, which is closer in form and content,has not. The boy and the scroll also appear inan unfinished monument to the magnanimity ofElisa Baciocchi Bonaparte. The boy prefigures thestatue of Carita educatrice and it is tempting tosee him as a reference to Elisa Baciocchi's effortsin education where she dedicated herself to the

education of children of less fortunate parents aswell as to children of the wealthy.38

9. Fran^ois Masson, Monument to Jean-JacquesRousseau, plaster model, 1798-99.

Paris, Musee du Louvre, Departement des Sculptures,inv. RFI9&4

ment made a deep impression on the young Ital-lan sculptor, inspiring another of his own statues- the monument to Count Niccolo Demidoff inFlorence that was to be finished after Bartolini'sdeath in 1850 (fig. 10). " In 1828, Demidoff, who

34 Gordon H. McNeil, The Cult of Rousseau and theFrench Revolution, in: Journal of the History of Ideas6, 2, i945> I97-2I2> here 212.

35 Hubert (as note 30), 72; Falletti/Bietoletti (as note 6),278-287.

T, 6 Jacques Hillairet, Dictionnaire historique des rues deParis, vol. I, Paris 1963, 6oi.

37 The full text of the inscription reads: »Perche il populodi San Niccolo avesse ognora dinanzi memoria vivadel commendatore Niccola demidoff indefesso bene-factor munifico il figlio principe anatolio al communedi Firenze questo monument dono MDCCCLXX.«

Charity and the Charity Child

Education was a burning topic at the time and Bar-tolini tried to find sources for his imagery of edu-cation and literacy that reflected contemporaryviews. He was not the only one. The fagade of theEpiscopal Seminary in Milan was designed by theMilan architect Francesco Maria Richini in 1652.Herms of Faith and Charity flank the entrance ofthe school. Their tapering shafts are decoratedwith images of bound books illustrating the semi-nary's educational function. Although not depic-ted as an educator, Charity is linked to literacy.

A more direct anticipation of Bartolini's Char-ity is provided by the French sculptor Michel

3 8 It has been suggested that the boy is »a spirit holding ascroll«, probably symbolizing the new laws Elisa hadgiven to Tuscany. Falletti/Bietoletti (as note 6), 202.On Elisa Baciocchi's educational reforms, see Marie-France Merger, L'educazione delle fanciulle all'IstitutoElisa e la Congregazione di San Felice di Lucca in epo-ca napoleonica, in: L'educazione delta donna in eta ro-mantica,, Susana Bonaldi and Patrizia Garelli, eds.,Florence 2003, 61-72.

39 Freyhan (as note i), 103; von Thadden (as note l).40 Smith (as note 13), 47-48.

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io. Lorenzo Bartolini, finished by his pupil Pasquale Romanelli,Monument to Nlccolo Demidoff, marble. started in 1828 after

Demidoff's death, erected in 1870-71. Florence, Piazza Demidoff

Anguier (1613-1686). His figures of Faith andCharity adorn two spandrels along the nave inNotre-Dame de Val-de-Grace and were complet-ed in 1667. Charity is represented traditionally, 39but Anguier added a third figure - a reading girl.As reading and writing became an essential part ofcharity schools designed for orphans and childrenof the poor, the book became an attribute of thechild who is the object of charity, or, to use a con-temporary term, the »charity child«. Figure 11shows a hymn to be sung by the charity childrenof St George the Martyr in London. Here, as inAnguier's relief, Charity and the charity child arebrought together into one image, but they do not

interact. Charity sits in a heart between Hope andFaith. The text surrounding the heart reads»Faith, Hope and Charity. The greatest is Char-ity. « (I Cor. 13:13) The text of the charity boy(»Hungry and ye fed me«) and the charity girl(»Naked and ye clothed me«) refer to the Gospelaccording to St Matthew (25:35-36). As is usualin the traditional iconography of Charity, thewoman directs her attention to children, one inher arms, and the other at her side, but her love is

further extended to the charity children to the leftand right of the heart. The charity children areholding books as symbols of their new-found lit-eracy. 40

ZEITSCHRIFT FUR KUNSTGESCHICHTE 76. Band / 201 3 551

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ii. Single sheet verse with an illustrated hymn to be sung by the charitychildren of St George the Martyr, at the parish church of St Clement

Eastcheap, on Sunday the 30th of May 1714, printed by J. Cluer(London) on the evidence of a woodcut, detail. London, The British

Library, shelf mark 11602 i 12, fol. i8r

It was the French painter Louis de Boullogne(1654-1733) who brought the personificationof Charity and the reading child together into asingle interacting figure group. He designed animage for the VHQfital de la Pitie in Paris, found-ed in 1612 and later housing and educating 1200children, mainly girls, who were foundlings andorphans. Unfortunately, the painting itself hasdisappeared but a preliminary sketch has survived(fig. ii).41 In the centre of the drawing, a seatedfigure of Charity is teaching a girl to read. Thecentral figure group is enhanced with images ofgirls involved in other activities drawn from thecurriculum of the institution for which the imagewas created.

These French images of Charity resonated inItaly. Between 1793 and 1796, Antonio Canovacreated a series of plaster reliefs for the RomanSenator Abbondio Rezzonico. 42 One of the reliefs

shows a traditional seated figure of Charity with a

12. Louis de Boullogne, Charity instructing children,preliminary drawing, black chalk on blue paper,

heightened with white, 366 x 252 mm.Paris, Musee du Louvre, Departement des Art

Graphlques, inv. 24970 recto

$52 ZEITSCHRIFT FUR KUNSTGESCHICHTE 76. Band/ 2013

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tolini must have known of the Rezzonico reliefs;though never executed in marble, several plastercopies existed. The most complete series is in theGipsoteca di Possagno, another in the MuseoCorrer in Venice. 44 Significantly, the relief deplct-ing the instruction of the ignorant was repro-duced in print under the title »La buona madre«.

i3. Antonio Canova, Insegnare agli ignoranti,plaster relief, 117 x 127 cm, 1795-96. Venice, Museo

Correr, Galleria Canoviana, Cl. XXVI n. 0029

bundle of flames on her head.43 However, themost relevant image depicts the instruction of theignorant (fig. 13). Abbondio Rezzonico possiblycommissioned this relief for installation in a

school for poor children in his hometown of Bas-sano del Grappa. The image shows a female figurebending forward to point out a significant passagein a book to a small boy in front of her, reminis-cent of De Boullogne's instructing figure and an-ticipating Bartolini's Carita educatrice. Thewoman is wearing exactly the same garment asBartolini's Charity: a sleeveless stola fastenedwith clasps on the shoulders and a palla (or ob-long shawl) draped over it. The only difference isthat the stola is still in place and has not slippeddown from her shoulder. The image shows fourgirls busy spinning, knitting, and praying as in thepreparatory drawing by Louis de Boullogne. Bar-

4i Helene Guicharnaud, Louis de Boullogne au Refec-toire des Petits Peres, in: Gazette des Beaux-Arts 142,Ser. 6, 136, 2000, 49-5^' here ̂ 6, n. 48.

42 Christopher M. S. Johns, Antonio Canova and the Pol-itics of Patronage in Revolutionary and NapoleonicEurope, Berkeley/Los Angeles/London 1998, 28-29and 48.

43 The reliefs of Hope and Charity were used as modelsfor the allegorical figures on the tomb of Pope Cle-

The tenability of the image

Around the middle of the nineteenth century, thefigure of Charity as educator had become wide-spread, especially in the context of educational in-stitutions. Nineteenth-century painters who de-picted Charity, for example the painters E. Cibot(1853) and Pierre-Eugene Maison, (186$), woulddepict girls sewing and knitting as Louis deBoullogne and Antonio Canova had done. 45 StAnne would remain an important visual proto-type, especially for French artist such as EmileSignal (1804-1892). In the vestibule of the >Cha-pelle des Catechismes< in the Church of St Eus-tache, Emile Signal painted an image of Charitywith an infant on her lap (fig. 14). The child isprotected from the cold by being wrapped in apiece of her garment, referring to gothic images ofCharity clothing the pauper. Signal's Charity hasher other arm wrapped around a young girl witha large book. The image could have easily beenmistaken for a St Anne Trinity; that is Anne, theVirgin and Child. The woman is portrayed as theintellectual »mater familias« in the presence oftwo generations. To avoid any ambiguity, EmileSignal has added the text CHARITAS along theside of the broad base, and a basket of bread and alarge amphora refer symbolizing the aims usuallydistributed by Charity and the bread and wine ofthe Eucharist.

ment XIII, the uncle of Abbondio Rezzonico, inSt Peter's.

44 Elena Bassi, La Gipsoteca di Posagno. Sculture e dipintidi Antonio Canova, Venice l9$7, 102-104, nos. 78-79.

45 For images, see Akin Tapie and Caroline Joubert, eds.,L'allegorie dans la peinture. La representation de lacharite dans la XV I Ie siecle, Caen 1986, 6 5 and 67-68.


14. Gustave Bertinot, engraving after Emile Signal,Charity Instructing for the Church of St Eustache,

Paris

Even though the concept of Charity as edu-cator remained influential, important shifts tookplace during the nineteenth century and are re-fleeted in art. Education of the poor had previous-ly been a task of local government in collabora-tion with the individual Christian and the Church

and many eighteenth-century clergyraen hadmade education of the poor a subject of their ser-mons.46 However, in 1848, Honore Daumier pro-duced a sketch with an impressive personificationof the Republic nourishing and instructing herchildren (fig. 15). He never worked up his sketch,but the personification of the Republic - recog-nizable by the French flag - is clearly inspired byimages of Charity. The figure was mistaken forCharity, even by contemporaries of the artist andthe image marks an important shift. Charity nolonger depends on the benevolence of local

46 For example Francis Gastrell, The religious educationof poor children recommended, in a sermon preach 'd inthe parish church of St. Sepulchres June ;. 1707, Lon-don 1707; John Erskine, The Education of Poor Child-ren recommended: a. Sermon preached in Lady Glen-

i5. Honore Daumier, oil sketch of La Repu. bliquenourrit ses enfants et les instmit, oil on canvas, 1848.

Paris, Musee d'Orsay, donation Etienne Moreau-Nelaton, 1906, inv. RF 1644

government: the State assumes the responsibilityof caring for its needy citizens. Towards the endof the eighteenth century, the ability to read cameto be regarded as a right, and slowly, the Statetook over the provision of schooling from theChurch/7

Around the same time, elements of Charitywere incorporated into images of local govern-ment. In 1850, Aime Millet designed a bas relieffor the Communal School at Rue de Vaugirard inParis. The work was entitled The City of Parisbrings Instruction to the People (fig. i6). 48 The

orchy's (yhapel, Edinburgh, May 18, 1774 Before theManagers of the Orphan-Hospital, Edinburgh 1774.

47 Williams Elliott (as note 28), ii2.48 Millet also made a relief entitled instruction under

the patronage of Faith« which has been lost.


16. Aime Mlllet, bas relief of the City of Paris Bringing Instructionto the People, c. 1850. Paris, communal school at Rue de Vaugirard

personification of Paris as a mother is very similarto the figure of Charity. The crown on her head inthe shape of ramparts is the sole Indication thatthis is the personification of a city rather thanCharity, but Millet harked back to Images ofLove; the figure of Paris incorporates aspects ofCharity. A girl seated directly on her right sidelooks at the small boy in front of the maternal fig-ure. This triad of figures - two women with asmall boy - points to St Anne with the Virgin andChild. The position of the legs and the child inbetween is based on Michelangelo's Bruges Ma-donna. The Madonna was considered to be the

epitome of Love and is often a model for Charity.On her right one figure gives another an appar-ently religious education with the evangelicalwords »Aimez vous les uns les autres. « On herleft is a figure which is drawing, surrounded bybooks and scientific and musical instruments. It is

a self-portrait of the artist who considers himselfindebted to the City of Paris for his instruction.

In conclusion

Before the seventeenth century, the figure ofCharity appears with babies and small children;Lorenzo Bartolini placed an eight or nine year old

boy at Charity's side and he introduced the ideaof instruction. The origins of the educadve aspect,the most strikingly different element of the statue,have not been adequately explained. Although theinitial statue of Charity could have been a testa-ment to the educational reforms of the BonaparteFamily, Bartolini was probably more influencedto introduce the education element into his statue

by the increasing popular demand that the poorreceive an education. Bartolini's statue has been

described as unusual, but the figure of Charityeducating the poor fits into a tradition that has itsroots in the seventeenth century. French artistswere largely responsible for the development ofthe new type of Charity, for example Michel An-guier, Louis de Boullogne and Franiyois Massonwho were familiar with images of St Anne in-structing the Virgin. For centuries, the educationof children had been a mother's job, and images ofSt Anne educating her daughter and related im-ages of women instructing children - omnipresentin France - provided suitable visual sources. Thenew iconography was developed further by JohnFlaxman, I^ertel Thorvaldsen and Antonio Ca-nova who repeatedly and decisively inspired Bar-tolini. Bartolini certainly was familiar with de-velopments in France where he had worked dur-


ing his formative years. The influence of Frenchimagery is visible in Bartolini's Carita educatriceas well as in his earlier work. He had already in-corporated elements of the statue in his monu-ments of Niccolo Demidoff and Elisa Baciocchi.Bartolini's statue was a visualization of the notion

that charity should provide intellectual and spir-itual nourishment as well as the basic physicalneeds of food, drink, and clothing. By that time,the symbolic older child - or »charity child« asthe object of pauper education was called - hadbecome an Important element of the iconographyof Charity.

As a comment on the education of the poor thestatue remained the subject of public debate andbecame a symbol of, perhaps even an appeal for,benevolence. Since the seventeenth century, theadvantages of educating the poor had been propa-gated. When Bartolini expressed the hope that his

statue would be seen as »a political sculpture thatembodies the true meaning of the Gospel«, 49 healmost certainly pointed to the responsibility ofthe Christian to provide for the poor, and possib-ly to the responsibility of the Christian govern-ment to provide them with a proper education.But it remains doubtful what he meant exactlywhen he used the word »political« to describe hisstatue. The educational reforms of the Bonapartesmight have been on his mind. Significantly, Lo-renzo Bartolini labeled his statue of Charity »po-litical« in the same year Daumier finished his LaRepublique nourrit ses enfants et les instruit whichreflects the growing involvement of the State inthe education of the poor. Whatever Bartolinimeant, the fusion of iconographical elements ofCharity with images of local and national govern-ment helped reinforce the political reputation ofthe figure of Charity.

49 Boomkamp (as note 6), 212.

Photo credits: i Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum. - 2 Heidelberger historische Bestande - digital: Quellen zur Ge-schichte der Kunstgeschlchte. - 3 © Sceren - CNDP. - 4 Library of Congress, Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection.- $ Photography by Mountain Butorac. - 6 British Library Board. All Rights Reserved Harley 3828. - 7 © Con-way Library, The Courtauld Institute of Art, London. Photograph by Bruce A. Bailey. - 8 Copenhagen, Thor-valdsen Museum. - 9 © RMN-Grand Palais (musee du Louvre)/Mi(:hel Urtado. - 10 © La storia di Firenzeattraverso Ie sue traghe. Photograph by Stefano Ra.didoni. - 11 British Library Board. All Rights Reservedbii6o2. i. i2. - 12 Paris, Musee du Louvre, Departement des Arts Graphiques. - 13 Musei Civici Veneziani. -14 from La. refresentation de la, charite au XVIIe siecle, ed. Alain Tapie, Caroline Joubert, exh. cat. Caen, Musee

des beaux-arts, Caen 1986, 65. - 15 Paris, Musee d'Orsay.

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Charity Instructing the Poor. Concepts and Practices of Education Reflected in Images of Charity

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