In all likelihood, Canova executed the two plaster reliefs Feed the Hungry and Teach the Ignorant for Abbondio Rezzonico, who hung them in an area set aside for a school he created to educate children from the lower-classes.

This bas-relief attests to the educational criteria of the times: the rebellious curly-haired boy is being taught to read, while the girls are learning to spin and weave. In the foreground, a little girl is kneeling and reciting the Rosary.

The bas-relief was reproduced in an engraving by Antonio Banzo (engraver) and Giovanni Demin (draughtsman): copperplate etching retouched with burin; 300 x 278 mm.