Page 30 - Contemporary Art and Old Masters

The Price of a Mother (To Improve the Race),
Marceliano Santa María Sedano (1866-1952), Oil on canvas 1900, Burgos,
Ayuntamiento de Burgos. Photo © Museo Nacional del Prado
settings, without any moralising reflection attached to moralising message beneath their asperity, and these were
the images, and a few, like Fillol, openly denounced the the only ones acquired by the State, which thus legitimised
unfavourable position in which the patriarchal institutions their paternalist discourse.
had unjustly placed women.
MOTHERS UNDER JUDGEMENT
GUIDANCE FOR THE WAYWARD From the end of the nineteenth century, images of various
The National Exhibition of 1895 saw the triumph of a new kinds reflected the normative and moral framework that
sentimentalist sub-genre inspired by serialised fiction, that of women were expected to stick to. Among those concerned
prodigal daughters returning home to implore their fathers’ with maternity, then equated with women’s personal
forgiveness after being seduced by a man. These fallen fulfilment, there were two subjects, both controversial, that
young women, usually from humble backgrounds, were were addressed by painters with special frequency, and
redeemed through a theatrically tearful repentance. They were also denunciations of irresponsible parenthood. The
were fleeing from a tragic destiny of abandonment or even first was that of the consequences of parents’ evil habits
death, the consequence of their rebelliousness in daring for their children’s health and their subsequent neglect,
to question the role assigned to them by the patriarchal in which the figure of the mother always came off worst.
society. These images, like the texts which inspired them, Supported by hygienist medical theories, various artists
were in fact educational warnings for the most wayward warned of the congenital after-effects left on children’s
young women. In the following years, some works shown at bodies by practices like prostitution or infidelity, both related
the official exhibitions started to make open denunciations to the dreaded venereal diseases. Painters meanwhile also
of the prostitution networks and the process of degradation explored a second subject, that of the drama involved for
to which their victims were subjected. An unflinching gaze many wet nurses in having to leave their rural homes and
at this problem of public order, which the authorities tried their own children to serve wealthy families in the city.
to hide but not eradicate, generally met with unanimous The narrative of surrogate nursing, frequent in the official
rejection from both the critics and the public. The only exhibitions, was thus mixed with the nascent notion of class
images that were tolerated were those which held a struggle.

30 WORLD of ART