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Bellucci, Antonio (attributed to)
Cimon and Pero (Caritas Romana)
around 1680

Much like the biblical narrative of Lot and his daughters, the tale of the young mother Pero and her father Cimon told by Valerius Maximus (active 14–37 CE) in his Nine Books of Memorable Acts and Sayings of the Ancient Romans crosses the threshold of accepted sexual mores. Cimon, an elderly statesman imprisoned and left to starve during his captivity, is kept alive by the milk of his daughter’s breast during her clandestine visits. Her deception is discovered by Cimon’s jailers, but so impressed are they with Pero’s selflessness and filial piety that they are moved to reward her altruism by releasing her father.

 
Bellucci, Antonio (attributed to)
Soligo, Italy 1654–Soligo, Italy 1726
Cimon and Pero (Caritas Romana)
around 1680
Oil on canvas
height / width: 60.40 x 75.20 cm; 23.78 x 29.61 in.
Gift of Alfred and Isabel Bader, 1990
33-014

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