I don’t know who started the game first, was it me or Mr Tranquillo, I can’t remember. Perhaps it’s something that everyone does after a few months of art gallery overload. Capturing amusing images of the painted baby Jesus in art became a pastime : trying to restrain one’s hilarity in those staid and respectable halls only added to the pleasure. The game began in the Groeningemuseum in Bruges and developed into a full on competition by the time we visited the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin, which, by the way, has the best collection of bad babies by far. We spent five hours in this fabulous gallery: despite these rather odd representations of Madonna and child, the Gemäldegalerie holds the most stunning collection of European art from the 13th to 19th centuries and is well worth a visit.
I’m sure Mr T captured far more images than I did.
For Smile
ALMOST ITALIAN 
How very icon-o-bombastic! They are hilarious. Although I’m socially forced to agree with contemporary mothers that their newborn is just beautiful, when in reality it’s not far removed by your images.
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Oh Peter you are an old meany. My babies were so beautiful and looked nothing like those ugly painted ones, and everyone else’s ugly baby.
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Dare say one is supposed to smile in a gentile way at this: well, my coffee cup has almost been upended scrolling 🙂 ! These days I may stray more towards the Buddhist ways . . . . but the artists exhibited at this section of the Gemäldegalerie should have been shot and quartered! And, Peter, my two were gorgeous-looking from the moment they left mother also 🙂 !!
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I am now keen to check out Tranquillo’s photo files to see if he captured some more bizarre babies.
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I did this also when I was in Firenze
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Sorry Michael here
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You might share an ugly one or too one day.
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Definitely left me smiling😁
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Baby as ET, or a little, shrivelled, evil homunculus…yikes. You did well with this game!
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I think that ET baby takes the cake, but then given the look on his mother’s face, it’s no wonder he turned out so strangely.
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😳
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I’m just giggling away. Thank you for this post!
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And thanks for looking Mimi.
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“Waving to my fans” gets my vote. All the babies are fun to look at and it must have been divine to see the paintings in person. If we ever make it back over to Berlin, the Gemäldegalerie is a must stop. Thanks for making me smile!
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Glad to provide some amusement Ron.
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Baby as ET was my favorite…had these painters really ever seen a newborn??? Love the game and will adopt it when we visit Italy this fall with friends.
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I am sure you’ll find more worthy candidates Liz.
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The priest with the magnifying glass (last) gets my vote. Oh surely they were comedians of the day. Some people would have been thrown out laughing.
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Ugly priest with ugly baby.
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The priest with the magnifying glass (last) gets my vote. Oh surely they were comedians of the day. Some people would have been thrown out laughing.
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Thanks, I nearly spurted wine out my nose when I snort laughed then! These are spectacular indeed. Every week my son-in law-posts a pic of himself superimposed over some famous or bizarre person and these look a lot like some of them. Might have to send him some for inspiration. I vote for the man boobs baby, the first one not the last.
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Snorting wine up your nose is the way to go when looking at these babies. I think your son could do a fine job with these…. or he coule be that bull faces man in the last pic looking at the ugly baby, or maybe he could go for a head paste on one of the Madonnas? Man boob baby was soooo strange.
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