On December 16, British street artist Banksy stirred speculation after posting a mysterious work on Instagram referencing the Madonna and Child. The painting on a metal panel in an unknown location shows the woman’s breast with a rusting hole for a nipple as the baby looks despairingly into his mother’s eyes.
The Instagram post has no caption and appeared at around 2PM UK time. There is no information about the artwork’s location or meaning.
As expected, the image has triggered a flurry of comments as social media users give their two cents about its potential significance. Several comments suggest the mother and her rusty wound is a metaphor for the suffering caused by the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.
However, one user asks: “Why are commenters making this post about Palestine?” To which someone responded: “You know Jesus was born in Bethlehem, right?”
One user wrote: “[Banksy] has been to Gaza and the West Bank, plus Jesus [sic] birthday is coming up, a little reminder on how Palestinian mothers are slaughtered and starved doesn’t hurt, since he’s from Bethlehem.”
Not everyone is convinced that the artwork is alluding to the war, though. “Could this imply a mother’s lifestyle choices impact the milk she feeds to her baby who has no choice but to accept it? Or perhaps that the chemicals in our food go directly from mother to baby through breastfeeding?” another person commented.
It is the first post on Banksy’s Instagram since August this year, when the artist completed his much-publicised series of nine animal-themed murals around London. They included elephants, monkeys, a howling wolf, fish, and pelicans, and despite loads of speculation about their meaning, Banksy said they weren’t meant to be taken seriously.
Banksy has riffed on the Virgin and Child theme before. His 2003 work Toxic Mary portrays a Madonna figures feeding a child milk from a bottle emblazoned with a skull and crossbones.
