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The regents would have understood Charity to be an appropriate subject for a canvas to hang in a charitable institution. It also includes a prominently placed personification of Charity. Further examination of van der Schuer’s design reveals a well-considered iconography comprising three consecutive stages of the disease, leading to inevitable death. But the image is more than an assemblage.
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The result probably fascinated the painting’s educated audience, primarily the regents of the hospital, who may (or may only partially) have recognized the visual references. Referring back to works by prominent artists, van der Schuer used different models to shape his vision of the plague. Part of this essay uncovers van der Schuer’s many sources, both literary and artistic. Museum De Lakenhal, Leiden, S 395 (artwork in the public domain) 1 Theodoor van der Schuer, Allegory of Human Deprivation, signed and dated 1682, oil on canvas, 134.9 x 163.2 cm. The painting has been used as illustration in publications on the plague and pesthouses, but its artistically creative qualities have been overlooked, as has its moral message. Most significantly, instead of depicting Charity in the usual way-as an idealized female figure caring for others-he transferred her characteristics to the care recipient: a plague victim. Second, the subject of the canvas, the plague, is unusual in a painting designed for a hospital, and particularly unusual for the Northern Netherlands, even though van der Schuer used well-known sources to shape his unconventional image. Van der Schuer earned important commissions in his time, but until now he has not received any significant level of modern scholarly attention. First, it was painted by a highly regarded artist who had established an international reputation before settling in The Hague in 1666. This little-studied painting depicting plague sufferers merits a closer look, both because of its painter and its subject. In 1682, the artist Theodoor Cornelisz van der Schuer (1634–1707) painted his Allegory of Human Deprivation as a chimneypiece for the boardroom of the pesthouse, or plague hospital, in Leiden ( fig. Combining a scene of the plague with a broad-reaching allegory, the painting proved relevant for decades to come. In reality, the hospital probably did not ever house plague victims although the disease remained a constant threat, the institution served different kinds of patients. Images of Charity were ubiquitous, especially in the context of hospitals, where they reflected the actions of the regents donating their time and dedicating their skills to the destitute. And although van der Schuer disguises Charity as a plague victim, visitors to the boardroom probably recognized the personification nevertheless. Since Vives was widely known throughout the seventeenth century, we may assume that his ideas were familiar to the hospital’s regents. In the painting, the plague becomes a symbol of human deprivation, and by depicting Charity as a plague victim, van der Schuer projects the idea that humility is an essential part of charity. Focusing on the plague-stricken figure of Charity, the allegory visualizes moral ideas that were disseminated in a 1526 tract on poor relief written by Juan Luis Vives.
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More than simply an image of a hospital, the painting is also an allegory of human dependence on God. He transformed well-known depictions of the plague to create an image of an unspecified hospital in a timeless setting. In 1682, the highly regarded artist Theodoor Cornelisz van der Schuer (1634–1707) painted a canvas for the boardroom of the plague hospital in Leiden.