The gal who’s having major wardrobe malfunctions is France. The old guy who can’t make up his mind whether to help her up or feel her up is Louis 18th, who became king after the allied monarchies of Europe finally succeeded in forcing the Bourbons back into power in France after the French expressed their distaste for that family by executing the ruling members and fighting several wars to keep them out. It’s all a pretty disgusting royalist allegory by an artist who knew how to earn a few francs by sucking up to rich and powerful French people, as he did throughout the age of Napoleon.
As for Melcher’s caption, let’s be charitable and suppose he left the X out of the roman numeral by mistake. Otherwise we would have to acknowledge that the poor guy can’t distinguish between the 1600’s and the 1800’s, which would be pretty pathetic. Given his recent track record for historical awareness, that’s being awfully generous, but let’s be nice to the guy. I’m sure he does his best.
The gal who’s having major wardrobe malfunctions is France. The old guy who can’t make up his mind whether to help her up or feel her up is Louis 18th, who became king after the allied monarchies of Europe finally succeeded in forcing the Bourbons back into power in France after the French expressed their distaste for that family by executing the ruling members and fighting several wars to keep them out. It’s all a pretty disgusting royalist allegory by an artist who knew how to earn a few francs by sucking up to rich and powerful French people, as he did throughout the age of Napoleon.
As for Melcher’s caption, let’s be charitable and suppose he left the X out of the roman numeral by mistake. Otherwise we would have to acknowledge that the poor guy can’t distinguish between the 1600’s and the 1800’s, which would be pretty pathetic. Given his recent track record for historical awareness, that’s being awfully generous, but let’s be nice to the guy. I’m sure he does his best.