What is the meaning of this painting? Why is one sister pinching the other's nipple?

[Exapno_Mapcase]

@mrunlucky

I’ve read that the sister getting pinched is pregnant, as implied by the pinching. However I don’t know why that is.

@kjbrasda

It could signify stimulating lactation.

I had to revive this thread. This painting is reproduced in Milk, Money and Madness: The Culture and Politics of Breastfeeding, by Naomi Baumslag and Dia L. Michels.

They say:

Since antiquity, concerns about the quality and quantity of breastmilk have been voiced. Various “milk tests” have been devised in the hope of finding ways to qualify the substance. In South Africa, many African tribal women felt they could tell how far along their pregnancies were based on the color of milk expressed from their breasts. This “technique” appears to have been used by European women as well. [reference to this picture].

No footnote is given.

mrunlucky and kjbrasda appear to have sussed it out.

[adhemar]

The theory expresed earier thatthis is the same woman in different phases of her life bears a lot of possibility. I recently saw an exhibit of italian Renaissance paintings and this technique of the paiting telling a story was used a lot. One paricular painting I remember had the same charcters shown 5 or 6 times.

[tracer]

Nah, I think it’s obvious. The meaning of this painting is that I really, really need to find a girlfriend.