#craddle

Maximilian II (1527-1576) was the eldest son of Emperor Ferdinand I and Anne of Hungary. In 1548, Maximilian II married his cousin Maria, whose father, Charles V, had entrusted him with the regency of Spain. Upon the division of the inheritance, Maximilian II received Bohemia, Hungary, and the Danube countries. In 1564, he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor. Depicted alongside Maximilian are his wife, Maria of Spain (1528-1603), and his children, Anna (1549-1580), Rudolf (1552-1612), and Ernst (1553-1595), who is in his cradle.

This polished depiction of family life centres on a beautiful young woman suckling an infant. A second child coddles a white dove at her knees while a bearded man looks on.

This study of a nurse and her sleeping charge was painted in a tower of Lorimer’s home in Kellie Castle, Pittenween. It depicts his baby nephew, Thomas Chalmers, son of the Chief Justice of British Guiana and his minder, Joanna Herbert from Demerara. By 1889, the year in which this celebrated and widely exhibited painting was made, thinking on childcare had greatly modernized. The practice of swaddling was abandoned. Now able to move freely, babies no longer needed constant rocking to distract them from their discomfort. The new cult of fresh air meant that nurses were urged to keep windows open even in freezing weather.

Young Hercules, lying in his cradle, kills the two snakes. In the background on the left a window with a view of a landscape, on the right a painting or relief.

The work is a Biblical scene based on chapter 2, verse 6 of the Book of Exodus, in which Pharaoh's daughter comes to wash in the River Nile, and finds the infant Moses abandoned in a basket in the reeds. The painting depicts the scene after the infant has been discovered, showing a procession travelling back to the daughter's abode in Memphis, the capital of the Old Kingdom of Egypt. The Finding of Moses had been a popular scene for painters, especially since the Late Renaissance.

Monsters who are nice to kids are some of my favourite tales.:) On a side note I feel like I have done a lot of more muted colour this last few wisptobers. hmmm We will see how colours returns in the next few ones.:)

* 1st century CE

Iconic Lillian Gish as The Eternal Motherhood in Intolerance (1916) by D. W. Griffith