Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Bringing in a little "low" art; because I can


James Gillray; The Fashionable Mamma; or the Convenience of Modern Dress (1796)

7 comments:

M said...

I don't think this is "low" at all.

p-duck said...

It's not "low" in my eyes either; except historically graphic satire has occupied a space beneath the traditional art of painting, and is not considered "high" art. Gillray and other caricaturists were shunned by the Royal Academy for their role in commercial printing and their often-crude subject material. For more information, come to my two upcoming talks : ) hee hee

supadiscomama said...

Um...I love how the nurse (?) is holding the baby while she breastfeeds from/on/with (?) the mother (?) Very strange and funny. That modern dress sure is handy!

The Reverend John Todd said...

Disgusting.

paperweight said...

Here, here Reverend--to make degrade such a a sacred act as the lactating Madonna and Child (see the background) and mock Rousseau's motherhood ideologies! Moreover, how dare we mock the Catholicism when the Pope is at our very door!

Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!

M said...

I think that Reverend Todd and paperweight are just jealous b/c they can't breastfeed. Oh, and Reverend Todd, is it the image you find disgusting or the act of breastfeeding itself? I only ask b/c given the fact that you live in the mid-19th century I wondered how else you proposed newborn infants be fed?

The Reverend John Todd said...

It is the public display of the the womanly breast to which I object.

Has this woman no decency?