18th & 19th Century Revolutionary Imagery: exposed breasts on the female figure.

[Fuzzy_wuzzy]

@Inner_Stickler

I think it was an attempt to call to mind the classical statuary of Ancient Greece which often had exposed breasts and was the birthplace of democracy. It also sort of suggests that just as a mother breastfeeds her infants, so too do Columbia, Marianne and Britannia nurse their respective new democracies.

There was certainly a strong neo classical movement in the 18th century. You can see it in the archicture of the period, espcially American architecture.