Strange things happen around the world but maybe the strangest things happened before this generation an example being the story behind a painting of a woman breastfeeding her biological father, an old man, who had been imprisoned
One of the paintings was sold at a whopping Kshs3,738,711,075(Euros 30 million) according to historical records.
History records reveal that the disturbing and yet inspiring incident took place during the reign of King Louis XIV in France. The story was retold by Valerius Maximus, a Roman writer and author of a collection of historical anecdotes.
According to the story, the old man is said to have been sentenced to death by starvation in jail after he was found guilty of stealing a loaf of bread.
While in prison, only one person was allowed to visit him till his death, that was his only daughter. She would only be allowed to see her father after being thoroughly checked to ensure that she was not hiding anything edible to take to his poor father. The daughter happened to be a breastfeeding mum.
After four months in jail, guards were shocked that the man was not showing signs of emaciation due to lack of food leave alone being dead as it was expected.
“The authorities were perplexed and started spying on her in the cell and to their utter astonishment found her breastfeeding her father to the fullest sharing her baby’s milk,” historic records reveal.
At first, the guards thought that it was a case of incest and waited to see what would happen next but nothing did.
They took the matter to the authorities and a case was opened against the woman. The judges however realized that the woman was very compassionate towards her father for her to act like that.
The judges were so touched that they decided to release the man from prison and let the woman free.
Since then several artists have portrayed the story in various paintings and drawings from the 17th and 18th century. Some of the notable painters include Peter Ben Reubens, Caravaggio among others.
A statue of the same was also erected at the top of the annex of the Belfry of Ghent in Belgium.
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