Babies

In honor of the new year, which is only three days old, here are some pictures of babies and children.

This is a happy little sculpture from Estremoz, Portugal. Maybe the mother had arms once.

In very old paintings the babies often look peculiar. The face of Duccio’s  baby Jesus face is old, although his feet are young.  The same is true of the Giotto. Why?

I have read that the babies look old because the society had a different conception of childhood, but this explanation never made sense to me. If you have ideas about this, please leave a comment.

I think that maybe the babies look like the artists looked. Another possibility is that the more detail you put into a face, the older it looks.

I love these awkward children painted by Henri Rousseau.

Why do her legs disappear into the meadow? Did Rousseau just run out of space?

This serene child in red was painted by Ammi Phillips.

When I draw babies I sometimes just do a shorthand baby – real features seem to weigh it down and make it unbaby like.

Simple cartoonish drawings can feel real. Crockett Johnson makes Harold feel real and alive by his body language, even though the few details are odd.

Margaret (Chodos-Irvine) includes very little detail in this baby from Only You, but the body feels just right. You can imagine holding this baby.

Maurice Sendak has lots of detail AND the babies in Outside Over There look like babies. Except that according to the text they are goblins, not babies.

Neither babies nor years stay brand new for very long. Time flies.

And sometimes babies fly too, as in this devinette.

May you have a Happy New Year, filled with new projects and new hope, and maybe even new babies. (But not flying babies).