> Catherine Driscoll wrote:
>
> > > Speaking of which, have you ever seen a Madonna nursing? It just
> >> occurred to me, that I haven't. It is implicit in some compositions,
> >> but I can think of one explicitly depicted.
> >
> >Sure. Yes. Major theme. You want names of painters or places of works?
>
> I saw a BVM in the Tate about 20 years ago that had a stream of milk
> flowing from her breast shooting heavenward to form the Milky Way. Is
> that a topos or an individual moment of extravagant fantasy?
Well that one sounds a little unusual, a little excessive, but the milk was very usual in a certain time and place. I believe more pre than post S.Bernard, because in one of his sermons he refers to the convention of painting the lactating BVM as if it had been dominant but was subject to concern or criticism. That genre was pretty unpopular in the 18-late20th centuries, really, it seems a bit odd I suppose. Oh there's a great paintng of S.Bernard somewhere with the virgin lactating into his mouth, based on older ones of Christ and other saints. Granted usually as babies, but certainly not always.
Late 1300s through to 1500s lots of exposed breasts or nursing mothers (Da Vinci has a quite conservative one), but the shower or drops of milk are more rare, and usually earlier on. But the sensuality of the BVM has been important to many versions of her. There's a great exposed breast one by Jean Fouquet, and one of my favourite altar pieces is a troop of women looking at each other with really strange smiles -- lots of baby kissing and other physical pleasures, and you can really only tell the Madonna because she's the one with her fingers stuck in a lily.
Catherine
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