Child Feeding her Pets (1872) by Gaetano Chierici

“CHARACTER is the expression of the personality of a human being …. A man’s character is the resultant of two distinct classes of factors; the original or inherited elements of his being, and those which he has acquired. On the one hand, every human being starts with a certain nature or disposition — a native endowment of capacities for knowledge, and feelings, and tendencies towards volition and action — which varies with each individual. This disposition is dependent in part on the structure of the bodily organism and especially of the nervous system which he has inherited; in part, perhaps, also on his soul which has been created … The transmission from parent to offspring of hereditary dispositions, therefore, involves no conflict with the doctrine of the creation of each human soul.”

— Catholic Encyclopedia, 1908

— Comments —

Hurricane Betsy writes:

The painting accompanying the short article appealed to me, so I looked for more paintings by Gaetano Chierici. Yes, apparently he was accused of painting the same old scenes over and over, but I can’t stop looking at them anyway.   Interiors of humble homes, lots of children and animals, a bit or a lot of mess.  A hundred years later and I can still somehow identify with all this.  I grew up in a home not much better than what you see in this art.  Such a change from portraits of aristocrats in their silk breeches, gowns and what not.

I’d kill to have an original Chierici, but while I’m waiting for the wealth to make it possible, I’ll have to buy a cheap poster, I guess.

You have a knack for finding these wonderful things.

Laura writes:

Thanks!

How I found that delightful painting is an interesting story, which I hope to tell some other time.

Chierici was painting back in the day when Italians still had children.

It’s sad people go to museums to look at overpriced, modern crap when there’s artists like him to appreciate.

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