The central female figure sits wearing a blue dress with a red collar and red forearm sleeves. A pink mantle is draped across her knees and spreads down to the ground on the left. She holds one nude cherub standing on her lap with his arm about her neck. To the left is a second cherub holding up a flaming heart while his fellow on the right holds up grapes. Below this group we see the head and shoulders of a swarthy muscular man with receding ginger hair who is clutching a bag.

This Charity, formerly known as The Triumph of the Heart, was long thought to be a work of the Mannerist painter Primaticcio (b. 1504, d. 1570), an Italian, who was one of the main representatives of the School of Fontainebleau. The present attribution was proposed by scholars in the 1960s and '70s. The elegant composition and the contorted figures of this picture, however, show the strong links between Antwerp, where Backer was born and where he died, and the Italian Mannerist painters of his time.