Cleveland Museum of Art

The Three Theological Virtures: Faith, Hope, and Charity, Surrounded by the Four Evangelists

Pieter I de Jode

Date

before 1634

Medium

Pen and ink, brush and wash over chalk with indications of transfer

Culture

Netherlands

Department

Drawings

Institution

Cleveland Museum of Art

This drawing is a design for a frontispiece, or title page, for the 1639 edition of the Theatrum Biblicum , a pictorial Bible compiled from print series by various artists illustrating the Old and New Testaments. Pieter De Jode the Elder’s monumental figural types depict the three theological virtues: Charity, atop a blank plinth, Hope, on the right, and Faith, on the left, bordered by the four Apostles with their attributes. The plinth was kept blank in order to be filled in with the title of the book (in this case, the New Testament), in the printed version. De Jode spent his career making and publishing prints primarily for the Antwerp book trade, which flourished during the late 16th and 17th centuries. In the period, the virtue of Charity, also described as Love, seen here seated atop the plinth, was usually portrayed as a woman tending to three children.

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