Cimon and Pero (Roman Charity)

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Cimon and Pero (Roman Charity): Peter Paul Rubens

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Art Type: Oil Painting
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Peter Paul Rubens Oil Painting - Cimon and Pero (Roman Charity)

Keywords: Cimon, Pero, Roman, Charity

Work Overview: Cimon and Pero (Roman Charity)
Peter-Paul Rubens
c. 1630
Oil on canvas, 155 x 190 cm
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Of the examples of 'filial piety' in the literature of antiquity, that of Cimon and Pero was one of the ones that appealed most to artists of the 16th to 18th centuries in Italy and the Netherlands. Valerius Maximus tells of a certain Cimon, an aged man, who was in prison awaiting execution and who was therefore given no food. The jailer allowed Cimon's daughter Pero to visit him. She nourished him by giving him her breast. The scene is a prison cell; the white-haired prisoner, manacled, reclines in the lap of a young woman who is suckling him. A jailer peers through a barred window.

The ancient Roman writer Valerius Maximus recounted a tale known today as Roman charity, the basic plot of which will probably make your stomach churn. The elderly Cimon is incarcerated for life and denied the benefit of food, so as to hasten his death. Pero, his daughter, would not have her father die in prison and instead gained access to his cell each night and offered him her breast-milk for sustenance. I always throw up a little in my mouth after hearing that story. Even more disturbing than the tale itself is seeing Rubens’ rendition. Cimon is so withered and enjoys sucking on Pero’s breast way too much! And Pero is a total voyeuse, gazing over towards the soldiers watching at the window. Eventually, however, Cimon is released because the soldiers so admired Pero’s self-less charity.

Peter Paul Rubens (1577 - 1640). Cimon en Pero, ca. 1630. Het opmerkelijke verhaal van Cimon en Pero stamt uit de Romeinse oudheid. Cimon is een oude man die gevangen zit en niets te eten krijgt. Zijn dochter Pero houdt hem in leven door hem stiekem de borst te geven. Dit verhaal gold als een toonbeeld van liefde voor de ouders en opofferingsgezindheid. Het staat ook wel bekend als de Caritas Romana, de Romeinse liefdadigheid. Rubens schilderde de oude man in een losse toets, die kenmerkend is voor zijn late werk. Grote nadruk legde hij op het verschil tussen deze rimpelige figuur en de mooie jonge vrouw. De voorstelling wordt verder verlevendigd door de toevoeging van de glurende bewakers. Aankoop door het Mauritshuis in Den Haag in 1822 uit de verzameling Stier van Aerstelaer, Antwerpen, Door ruiling in 1825 verworven door het Rijksmuseum.

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Peter Paul Rubens

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