Caritas Romana

This large-format painting shows a story from the so-called ‘memorabilia’ of the Roman writer Valerius Maximus. It concerns a father who is meant to starve to death in prison. Only his daughter is allowed to enter his cell, which has been thoroughly searched for food before he enters. The daughter, however, who had recently given birth, gives the father her own breast to drink from. This saves him from starvation. Rubenʼs work shows the two of them kneeling on straw in the gloomy cell. The grey-bearded father drinks from his daughter’s breast. With his hands tied behind his back, he is unclothed except for a cloth wrapped around his hips. The daughter, who wears a red dress, looks with tears in her eyes towards a window through which two men watch the scene. The daughter’s small infant lies to the right of the picture, likewise resting on straw. The story, masterfully depicted by Rubens, serves as an example of pietas – love for and responsibility towards one’s parents. This picture comes from the master’s late work and was presumably in his possession at the time of his death in 1640.