CIRCLE OF HENRY FUSELI (c.1770-1780)

'CARITAS' 
Black chalk & oil on brown-tinted laid paper
24.5 x 19 cm
 
PROVENANCE
Private collection, Scotland
 
 
 
 
 
When this was work was examined by Henry Wyndham and Peter Nahum on the BBC television show 'The Antiques Roadshow', it was deemed to be by Henry Fuseli and to depict the embodiment of 'Charity' (generally titled 'Caritas'). [1] The attribution, though perhaps given incautiously, nevertheless certainly makes sense: the Michelangelo-esque figures and their proportions, coupled with the very characterful and graphic facial type of the central larger figure, immediately call to mind the work of both Fuseli and several of his acolytes active in Rome in the 1770s and afterwards. A conclusive attribution remains elusive for the moment, though James Northcote R.A. (1746-1831) has been proposed as a possibility. 
 
 
The figures undoubtedly owe a considerable debt to Michelangelo and the Sistine Ceiling, and are something of a synthesis of the 'Ancestors of Christ' (sometimes called 'The Patriarchs'). These figures, who together compriose a comparatively less well-known section of the fresco cycle, can be found in the eight spandrels of the side walls of the Chapel, between the thrones of the Prophets and Sibyls and above the lunettes. Several of these figures rest their hands in their hands just as our figure does, a pose which does not feature in Michelangelo's oil paintings of similar figural groups such as the various Holy Family tondi. Fuseli was fascinated by the 'Ancestors' and referred to them at length in his own theory and adapted for his own drawings and paintings. [2] [3], viewing the figures as 'embodiments of sublime sentiments.' [4]