The Seven Works of Charity
1588
Medium
Engraving in black on ivory laid paper
Dimensions
Image/sheet, trimmed within platemark: 12.1 × 12.1 cm (4 13/16 × 4 13/16 in.)
Classification
engraving
Department
Prints and Drawings
Museum
Art Institute of Chicago
Accession Number
43527
Rights
Public Domain
About this artwork
Theodor de Bry and his family produced numerous intricate ornamental designs. Many appeared in roundel formats, which required the viewer to turn the print around to read the entire image and its text. Here de Bry surrounded the central figure of Charity with the seven corporal works of mercy: feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, clothing the naked, sheltering the homeless, ministering to the sick, visiting the imprisoned, and burying the dead.
About the Artist
Theodor de Bry · 1528–1598
Theodor de Bry was born in 1528 in Liège, in what is now Belgium, into a family of jewelers and engravers. Trained as a goldsmith and copper-plate engraver — skills he refined under his grandfather, Thiry de Bry the Elder — he worked across several European cities before religious persecution forced him into exile. As a Protestant living under Spanish rule in the Southern Netherlands, de Bry was s...