Van der Werff belongs to a small group of Dutch artists who adopted the artistic ideals of the French Academy; by a strange irony, often remarked upon, this Gallic tendency occurs around the time of the real French invasion of the Low Countries in 1672 (when one might reasonably expect Dutch culture to be defensively nationalistic). Ideal nude figures, resembling Classical sculpture, carefully drawn and then transferred onto the canvas - all these are features recommended by the academies of Europe; paying particular tribute to Nicolas Poussin was especially advocated at the French Academy. The only local feature is the way in which forms are lost in shadow and the way in which the mood of the subject is so powerfully evoked by the quality of light, both things which van Der Werff (like so many other Dutch artists) learned from Gerrit Dou. The story here tells of an imprisoned old man, Cimon, whose daughter, Pero, saves him from starving by feeding him at her breast. It is called ‘Roman Charity’ because it was believed to be the episode from the pagan world which came closest to exemplifying that Christian virtue. Pero seems to have brought her children on the visit which reminds the viewer of the allegorical depiction of Charity: a mother with three babies, usually suckling one of them. Much play is made in this image of the translucent brightness of this noble figure, looking as if carved in alabaster, in contrast to the dark squalor of the cell, with a guard peering through the grill and chains visible in the left foreground. Inscribed ‘Cherv. Vr Werff. Fec / ano 1708’