Oil painting expertise needed for book cover selection

[Michael Pollak]

A friend of mine is having one of his essays published in a series that
puts essays out as tiny little hardcover books with an oil painting on the
cover, and he needs help finding an appropriate painting. His title is
"Capitalism and Compassion." His thesis is that, for all the perennial
accusations of the heartlessness of the market, people actually only begin
to worry about the suffering, and then the rights, of poor people and then
children and then animals, under capitalism. The reason for this, he
thinks, is because the growth of the market erased differences of status,
and consequently increased the capacity, and then the reflex, of
sympathizing with the suffering of others -- suffering which, in
pre-capitalist times, was often a source of public entertainment (i.e.,
public hangings and burnings).

Now of course one doesn't need to agree with this thesis to help me find
an oil painting to illustrate it. My first thought was that there have
been so many rich burgher patrons, surely more than a few of them must
have been both vain and religious -- or at least interested in polishing
the image of their trade -- and so must have commissioned a painting of
two that testified to their charity.

Even better would be a picture of rich people looking at and sympathizing
with the suffering of miserable wretches.

Any suggestions as to paintings, resources I might search or people I
might ask would be deeply appreciated.

Thanks a lot,

Michael

__________________________________________________________________________
Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak@panix.com