Franois Boucher Virgin and child with st john the Baptist 1765 Boucher was named director of the

French Royal Academy in 1765, the year in which he painted the Virgin and Child. In this sprightly and accomplished picture, which is not overtly religious, he draws attention to the solemn innocence of infancy. Saint John the Baptist is shown as a very young child, his hands clasped in prayer, wearing a sheepskin and accompanied by a lamb. Boucher's many students included Fragonard, Boucher began his career engraving Jean-Antoine Watteau's worksmythological scenes, ultimately inspired by Peter Paul Rubens Mainly did works for private collectors.mdme pompadour was big fan did a lot of herdid a lot of greek/roman art(ariandne bacchas venus etc) In the year in which he signed and dated this canvas, 1765, Boucher was appointed first painter to Louis XV of France, and also was elected director of the Acadmie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture. He had, however, lost his most important patron, Madame de Pompadour, the kings mistress, who died the previous year. She had commissioned the few important religious subjects he painted, notably a Nativity for her chteau at Bellevue (Muse des Beaux-Arts, Lyons) and a Rest on the Flight into Egypt (now in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg). This little devotional picture was not exhibited and must have been a private commission. Despite the presence of the grapes, a symbol of the Eucharist, and the lamb, attribute of John the Baptist, here envisaged as a little boy draped in an animal skin, it might almost be mistaken for a pastoral subject. However the angels gathered above, and the brilliant aureole of light around his head, draw attention to the solemn infant and identify him as the Christ Child. http://www.metmuseum.org/Collections/search-the-collections/110000177 Symbolism http://www.historyofpainters.com/virginmary.htm <="" font="" face="Times New Roman">The Color Blue - symbolizes purity; The Virgin Mary; Virgin and Child; The Immaculate Conception <="" font="" face="Times New Roman">The Color Gold used as a background color or in the halo symbolizes purity, royalty and glory of life after death. <="" font="" face="Times New Roman">The Color White - is a sign of innocence; Birth, Youth, Betrothal and Marriage; The Virgin Mary; Virgin and Child; The Immaculate Conception, The Holy Family <="" font="" face="Georgia">Grapes Signify lewdness and lustful thoughts. Grape Vine, symbolizing Christians unification with Christ who said, "I am the vine; you are the branches." lamb - symbolizes humility, peace, and innocence. The lamb represents Christ as the Lamb, and also Christians as the flock. http://www.oldandsold.com/articles22/madonna-2.shtml

Cherry tree symbols mean death and rebirth and new awakenings. The proper dress of the Virgin is a close red tunic, with long sleeves ; 1 and over this a blue robe or mantle. In the early pictures which represent her as nursing the Di-vine Infant (the subject called the " Virgine Lattante ") the utmost care is taken to veil the bust as much as possible. In the Spanish school the most vigilant censorship was exercised over all sacred pictures, and, with regard to the figures of the Virgin, the utmost decorum was required. " What," says Pacheco, " can be more foreign to the respect which we owe to Our Lady the Virgin, than to paint her sitting down with one of her knees placed over the other, and often with her sacred feet uncovered and naked ? Let thanks be given to the Holy Inquisition, which commands that this liberty should be corrected." For this reason, perhaps, we seldom see the feet of the Virgin in Spanish pictures, or in any of the old pictures till the seventeenth century. "

Clearly skilled, she was accepted to study with Jean-Leon Gerome Cassatt has no rival in rendering the fluidity of air around her figures. The well-blended unity of her paintings arises from the softness of modeling caressed by an impalpably light touch and the smoothness of the tones linked by this invisible agent. Look at the young girl at the window: her lips breathe, her eyes have the moist and mobile flash of life, her hat adorned with white gauze and pink silk has the delicacy of a flower in bloom. Maurice Hermel, La France Libre, 27 May 1886 http://www.mystudios.com/women/abcde/cassatt.html Mary met Edgar Degas and he staged a show of his work and her other work that had been refused by the Salon. The name of the show was Les Salon des Refuses. Through Degas many contacts, Mary eventually met other Impressionists: Monet, Renoir and Pissarro. The earliest dated work on this subject is the 'Gardner Held by His Mother' although she had painted a few earlier works on the theme. Some of these works depict her own relatives, friends, or clients, although in her later years she generally used professional models in compositions that are often reminiscent of Italian Renaissance depictions of the 'Madonna and Child'. After 1900, she concentrated almost exclusively on mother-and-child subjects. She often dealt with tension between a mother's focused attention on a child and a child's desire to explore the world. she avoided sentimental portrayals in favor of emphasizing her models' freshness, intelligence, and energy.

Although unpretentious in its literal details, the scene nonetheless achieves an aura of elemental dignity. In a gesture of unaffected tenderness, a plain-featured woman wearing a simple cotton print dress embraces her sleepy toddler, a blond robust youngster of indeterminate sex dressed in a simple white cotton shirt, and nestles the child firmly on her lap. The two figures are presented close-up, their contours filling the picture frame. Behind them the artist has rendered the barest of interior detail in vigorous, sketchy brushwork: cropped views of a straight back chair, a small cloth-draped wash stand

holding an undecorated ewer and basin, and in the upper right-hand corner, the edge of a woodshuttered window.

Cassatt's choice of subjects and setting evoked for her upper middleclass audience a picture of the contemporary and the commonplace. The mother's appearance suggested that of a country woman or domestic servant. She and her nondescript furnishings, as well as the studied casualness of impressionist brushwork removed the scene far from the sacred, picturesque, or refined realms familiar to concurrent Salon conceptions of motherhood. Cassatt also kept away from conventional sentimentality by imposing a solemnity of rhythm and stable (Mother and Child: ca 1890white dress pink flowers on mom)unity upon the moment-to-moment sensations of touching, holding, and embracing. Conscious and unconscious caresses proceed in a litany of check against nodding head, small hand grasping mother's chin, small relaxed hand and arm resting atop mother's large anchoring hand, with the latter in its turn set atop her second hand as it muscularly grasps the baby's thigh. The two bodies lean into one another forming an easy yet firm dovetail that functions compositionally and symbolically as an indissoluble unit The Family: ca 1892 This is an oil on canvas painting. The figures are arranged in a pyramid shape in the foreground, reminiscent of Renaissance Madonna and child groupings. Both the Mother and older daughter gaze at the baby. The baby looks at the older sister, or perhaps at the carnation she holds. The viewer is standing slightly above the seated figures. The background shows a path that leads into some trees, but only the bottoms of the trees are visible. The mother wears a violet dress with a wide lace collar; her two hands firmly hold the baby. http://hoocher.com/Mary_Cassatt/Mary_Cassatt.htm

recheck this site http://paintingsgalleries.blogspot.com/2009/01/mary-cassatt-painting-love-ofmother.html check Wikipedia on impressionism and rococo definitions of styles. Discuss brushstrokes?crispness of bouchers pic vs cassatts impressionist style.arm positions of babies in both. Boucher size of mombaby is small compared to putti in pic. Cassatt pic is all mombaby.mention small size of virginshe was very young. Cassatt painted women.check symbolism of both paintingsimpressionistic symbolism. Also one by man one by woman any differences? Mentiondiferences in the fact thatc one is rococo and one impress.discuss busy background in bouchers.

Mother is the name for God in the lips and hearts of little children.

William Makepeace Thackeray Sarah Lucas

William Makepeace Thackeray said Mother is the name for God on the lips and in the hearts of little children. So it is no wonder that throughout history, we see art that celebrates motherhood. Males relegated family scenes to woman artists, making them seem less worthy in a bid to strengthen the patriarchal world we live in. I believe their mothers should have smacked them for not giving proper respect to the hardest job in the world. Francois Bouchers Virgin and child with young St. John the Baptist and Cassatts Baby on his Mothers Lap, Reaching to hold a red scarf