Enjoying a walk in the Botanic Tropical Garden, in Lisbon, I was surprised by this unnusual statue of a woman breast-feeding an adult male.

    I looked for information about this sculpture.  This baroque statue was made in Rome by Bernardino Ludovici in 1737, and brought to Lisbon by king Joao V. “Roman charity” is a classical greco-roman theme, and it is based on the story of a woman trying to save her own father, condemned to death by starvation, by secretly breast-feeding him.

As you can imagine, a variety of interpretations of this subject can be found, some of them very creative…