Surrealist spanking

I visited Paris recently to meet up with a friend. It was a whirlwind visit - I was there for 24 hours, courtesy of the Eurostar (which I hadn't had the pleasure of using before, but am now thoroughly converted to). My friend and I spent our afternoon at the Pompidou Centre, which I hadn't visited since I was about fifteen. It's far too big to do in one day - we flaked out after three floors and ran outside in search of fresh air and glâce. But while we were there, I saw a very interesting painting by Max Ernst which I hadn't heard of before ...



Apparently it's called (wait for it ...) The Virgin Chastises the infant Jesus before Three Witnesses: André Breton, Paul Éluard, and the Painter.

I hadn't heard of this painting before, although apparently it caused a huge controversy when it was created in 1926.

While looking up the details of the piece, I did find this article by a writer called Gypsy Scholarship, connecting this painting with a traditional song called Bitter Withy - also about the Virgin Mary spanking the child Saviour. Which is kind of cool. (Plus I got to feel smug for recognising the word "withy" after my recent experiences with weaving willow.) Gypsy Scholarship's post also mentions that André Breton (one of the Surrealist artists depicted in Max Ernst's painting) also painted a Madonna/child spanking piece, but typing "Andre Breton spanking madonna" into Google doesn't yield any useful results. If any of you know the work in question please feel free to enlighten me in the comments! And link to a picture, naturally. :)

I don't know much about Surrealism, but as far as I can make out the image of the Virgin as a strong disciplinarian is intended to contrast with traditional representations of her as the ideal of feminine passivity. In challenging the conventional trope Ernst seems to be trying to bring the image of the Madonna and child more in line with real human experience. I'm sure it's more complicated than that, but today is way to hot for me to attempt art criticism. I'll leave you with the strange fact that three surrealist painters - including the artist - are watching the proceedings. A comment on critical scrutiny, or plain old voyeurism? Who can tell?

Right, that's more than enough culture for today. It's 30 degrees in London and far too hot to think. I'm going to take a cold shower, and then Mr C is going to introduce me to my new wooden hairbrush, after which I'll probably need another cold shower. I hope you're all enjoying the heatwave just as much as we are :)