The Charity of Saint Thomas of Villanueva c. 1665 - 1670

Bartolomé Estebán Murillo captured a scene of giving with oil on canvas, presenting Saint Thomas of Villanueva distributing alms. The very act of charity, deeply ingrained in Christian iconography, pulses through this image, a potent symbol of compassion and divine love. Consider the outstretched hands, a motif echoing through time from ancient depictions of supplication to Renaissance gestures of grace. We see it mirrored in the hands of deities bestowing blessings, their open palms a conduit for otherworldly power. Here, Murillo translates the sacred into the mundane, focusing on the emotional exchange between giver and receiver. In psychoanalytic terms, the open hand can be seen as a primal symbol of trust and vulnerability, tapping into collective memories of dependency and nurture. The faces of the recipients, etched with need and gratitude, evoke a deep emotional response, triggering our own innate sense of empathy. This motif, like a persistent dream, recurs across cultures and epochs, forever reminding us of our shared humanity.