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The Legislative Belly
Artist / Origin: Honoré Daumier (French, 1808–1879)
Region: Europe
Date: 1834
Period: 1800 CE – 1900 CE
Material: Lithograph
Medium: Prints, Drawings, and Photography
Dimensions: (Image) H: 11 1/8 in. (28.2 cm.), W: 17 1/8 in. (43.5 cm.); (Sheet) H: 13 11/16 in. (34.8 cm.), W: 20 3/16 in. (51.3 cm.)
Location: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit: Courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Rogers Fund.
The Earth Spider Creating Monsters in the Mansion of Minamoto no Yorimitsu
Artist / Origin Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Japanese, 1797–1861)
Region: East Asia
Date: 1843
Period: 1800 CE – 1900 CE
Material: Woodblock print
Medium: Prints, Drawings, and Photography
Dimensions: H: 13 3/5 in. (34.6 cm.), W: 28 3/5 in. (72.7 cm.)
Location: Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
Credit: Courtesy of Bridgeman Art Library
Art has long been a forum for expressing opinions about the state of politics and society. Through caricature, satire, symbolism, and allegory, artists have commented both explicitly and subversively on everything from vanity and excess to corruption and greed, and poked fun at everyone from the anonymous masses to the privileged elite. Often widely disseminated through prints and other reproducible media, the ability of such images to strike a meaningful chord and leave a lasting impression has at times made political satire dangerous terrain for artists, especially those living under the governance of repressive regimes.