Vol. 17 No. 1 (2024): Enero-Junio

“Homeless” is a work by the British painter Thomas Kennington made in 1890. What we see in this particular painting is a mother with her son who has fainted, possibly due to starvation. Although they do not look untidy, it is clear that her only belongings are in the bundle that she has left on the floor to care for her son. The painting inspires compassion, cold, loneliness, the gray colors and the pale skin contribute to this. The technique used by Kennington to paint the wet pavement and the river and his focus on subtle variations of hues rather than on the color-like soft gray light that illuminates this scene. “Care constitutes the central category of the new paradigm of civilization that arises from the responsibility of caring as a duty of humanity, with the protection of all forms of life, especially human life.