A Caridade

In August 1469 the merchant court of Florence, the body that policed every guild in the city, signed a contract for seven paintings of the Virtues to line the backs of the benches in its audience hall, just off the Piazza della Signoria. Piero del Pollaiuolo got the job, and this figure of Charity was the first he delivered, before that December was out. She is shown with children clustered to her, the traditional emblem of Charity, of selfless love. The commission would soon cause a quarrel when a young Botticelli was handed one of the seven, to the Pollaiuolo brothers' irritation. On the back of this very panel a drawing of the same figure survives, the sketch Piero made to show his patrons what they would get.