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Lot Essay
A drawing of the same subject datable to the late 1640s is at Windsor Castle, D. Mahon and N. Turner, The Drawings of Guercino in the Collection of Her Majesty the Queen at Windsor Castle, Cambridge, 1989, no. 187, fig. 184.
The subject, a counterpart to the Roman Charity, depicts a Roman woman who, having been condemned to death by starvation, was visited in prison by her daughter who breastfed her. A painting described as Carità Romana in the Libro dei Conti on the 23 August 1639 was commissioned by Marchese Bentivoglio as a gift to Mazarin. Guercino executed a third drawing of this subject, now lost, which was engraved by Clemente Nicoli and published in 1786.
The subject, a counterpart to the Roman Charity, depicts a Roman woman who, having been condemned to death by starvation, was visited in prison by her daughter who breastfed her. A painting described as Carità Romana in the Libro dei Conti on the 23 August 1639 was commissioned by Marchese Bentivoglio as a gift to Mazarin. Guercino executed a third drawing of this subject, now lost, which was engraved by Clemente Nicoli and published in 1786.