Charity

In the art of the Middle Ages and Renaissance, the Virtues were often personified by human figures carrying identifying attributes. Charity typically holds one or more children. As represented by Mino da Fiesole, a contemporary of Desiderio da Settignano and Antonio Rossellino, Charity and a companion piece Faith appear as slender young girls in clinging, layered gowns with fine pleats. Their heavy mantles are carved in distinctive, angular folds. Typical of Mino’s style is the fine, precise, sharp-edged treatment of textile folds and locks of hair, giving these features an ornamental quality different from the softer approach of Desiderio and Antonio Rossellino.

Set in arched niches, the figures must have been intended as part of a monument combining architecture and sculpture, probably a wall tomb inside a church.