Borstvoedende vrouw met vijf kinderen c. 1746

Curator: What a moving image. Before us hangs an engraving from around 1746, titled "Breastfeeding woman with five children," or "La Savoyarde," crafted by Nicolas de Larmessin III. Editor: My first impression is one of quiet strength amidst hardship. The scene is dark but lit with what I take to be a powerful tenderness, almost resilience radiating from the central figure, this woman holding her baby. Curator: Absolutely. It's crucial to consider this piece in its socio-political context. During this period, prints became powerful tools for disseminating ideas among a wider audience. Pieces such as this, distributed amongst the masses, begin to show some shift toward valuing domesticity. Motherhood becomes a focal point. Editor: And it is precisely that focus which allows such a potent tapestry of symbolism to take hold. The mother archetype is one that resonates cross-culturally and through time. The artist highlights the Virgin figure while rooting the image within everyday existence, using familiar gestures and realistic depictions to speak volumes about care, responsibility, even survival. We could consider the hooded lantern hanging in the upper part of the image too; these household devices illuminate both dark spaces and minds! Curator: I see your point about that archetypal reading and how these items become symbolic in a familiar household setting. What interests me most is to think about the social ramifications of presenting such a subject for the consumption of a wide audience. While many were living such harsh realities of poverty and familial expectation, it serves to reason that others were perhaps meant to consider that social state more acutely, a political move enacted in pictorial form. Editor: Or perhaps it served to offer the audience an opportunity to feel compassion towards mothers living with many children in situations of economic distress. Considering that in iconography, the action of breast-feeding in itself means that someone "becomes" or transforms into an allegory, we can look at this simple scene in the print as an allusion. It presents motherhood with all its tribulations but praises this woman as someone strong that perseveres despite it all. Curator: Yes, that delicate balance of presenting harsh truths while simultaneously romanticizing the strength found within those circumstances makes this engraving so compelling and worthy of further discussion. Editor: A deeply resonant, layered work, that is indeed. A picture brimming with symbolisms that transcends its time.