From allegory to genre scene: Painting the charity in action

During a century in which the catholicism of good works and humanist philosophies were rivals, the image of Charity combined a reference to the most important of the theological virtues with a vision of active piety given as a model to the faithful. Thus, in order to see charity as God's love and the love of one's neighbour, the repertory of allegory, which still inspires Daumier's Republic, also opens onto the figure of fraternity so dear to social Christians. In the paintings of daily life, next to the thousands of alms scenes, certain representations of poverty allow, through the contrast between the rich and the deprived, a glimpse of an underlying critique. Because the stakes are high on both the social and the theological ground, the motif of Charity seems one that blurs boundaries; while the hierarchy of the genres becomes fuzzy, allegory seems to make a come-back behind the picturesque.