Caritas

Danh Vo’s photogravure Caritas depicts a detail from Bartolomeo di Zanobi di Benedetto Ghetti’s painting of the same name. Part of The Danish National Gallery’s collection, the painting was featured on Vo’s 2018 solo exhibition Take My Breath Away. The exhibition title is engraved into the custom-made glass frame in the writing of Vo’s father.

The allegory of Charity, one of the seven Christian virtues, is typically depicted as a nursing mother who nourishes the young with milk. The exhibition presented the painting alongside a gilded cardboard box previously used to transport Eagle Brand condensed milk. This syrupy canned product, beloved by the artist as a child, is widely distributed in Asia by the transnational food conglomerate Nestlé.