Christian caritas
The hungry girl in the centre seizes a piece of bread. Behind her a child gulps greedily as a jug is put to her lips. On the far left, a boy pulls off his rags. Jan de Bray depicted three works of Christian charity: feeding, quenching the thirst and dressing the orphan. He painted it for the regentenkamer, the trustees’ room, in the Arme Kinderhuis in Haarlem. The picture hangs here as a guest exhibit: orphanages were founded in many towns and cities in the Republic. And paintings hung in many regentenkamers as visual reminders of the duties of the regenten, the trustees.
564 keer bekeken