Lot Essay
The theme of Charity, as represented by a mother surrounded by children, was an oft-recurring motif for both Lucas Cranach I and his son Lucas the Younger. The iconography first appeared in Italy in the early 14th Century, possibly deriving from the Virgo lactans, a woman suckling two infants. By the end of the 16th Century it was prevalent throughout Europe. The present work has no known exact prototype, but the overall composition, which features a seated nude woman nursing an infant while three other children cling to her or gather around, exists in numerous variants.