Giovanni Battista Moroni, Italian
Even at Their Tender Age, It Was Clear the Girls Had Inherited Their Mother’s Eyes and Their Father’s Hairline, ca. 1572-75
Oil on canvas
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Info, or links that point to more info, about this artist can be found here, here (archived if necessary), here, here, here, here, and here (can be read in full for free on Fridays), perhaps in addition to what’s in his Wikipedia page (Google translated Italian Wikipedia page has more).
/// With long hair, these three, last week, looked nice.
Then the gentleman got some advice.
If they had it close cropped,
itchy scalps could be stopped.
He’d more easily find and kill lice.
/// His two children’s at home education
kept them out of the school population.
And his very clean house
shouldn’t harbor a louse,
yet somehow they caught this infestation.
/// Children’s father had wisely assessed
different treatments to see which was best.
In those days people spread
lard all over their head,
in an effort to smother the pest.
/// Some with money, (like this trio here),
would, their scalps, with pure mercury smear.
The solution he craved
was to have their heads shaved,
then with tweezers pinch lice that adhere.
/// Death had taken the lover he’d wed,
now he hires strange women to bed.
His short, neatly trimmed beard
has no head lice, as feared.
(But it has Pthirus pubis instead.)
/// Though the children cut off their long tresses,
we’d assume from their colorful dresses
that we’re seeing two girls
shorn of feminine curls,
but the youngest’s a boy, Solstice guesses.
/// From the painting, as far as I see,
the small child looks to be about three.
At that tender young age
it’s a “genderless” stage—
not much difference between “he” and “she.”