A French edition of an Italian serio-comic map of Europe, with the countries drawn as national caricatures, a commentary on the 1878 Treaty of San Stefano that ended the Russo-Turkish War. As the victor, Russian claimed lands in the Caucasus, allowed Austria to take over Bosnia and Herzegovinia, and let Romania, Serbia, Montenegro and Bulgaria proclaim independence from the Ottoman Empire. The Russian Octopus is shown with its tentacles threatening its neighbours, Poland, Turkey and Persia. Elsewhere England is rushing forward but is still not going to arrive in time; Greece is a Crab and Crete a fish swallowing a sword; Italy is roller-skating, holding a frog like a purse; and Bulgaria is a skull on the shoulder of the Turk.
Neither Britain nor France were happy with the Treaty of San Stefano, so it was renegotiated less than three months later by the Congress of Berlin, attended by British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor Germany.
Although printed in Bologna, this satire was issued in 'Le Perroquet' (The Parrot), the Parisian edition of 'Il Papagallo', a satirical magazine founded in January 1873 by Augusto Grossi (1835-1919), which specialised in colour-printed caricatures like this one. 'Il Papagallo' closed in 1915, when Grossi was 70 years old.
Additional information
Dimensions | 630 × 420 mm |
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Cartographer | |
Date | 1878 |
Extra Info | La Pieuvre Russe. Suppl?ment du Perroquet. |
Publication | Bologna: Mazzoni & Rizzoli, 1878. Chromolithograph. Sheet 420 x630mm. |
Condition | A good example. |
References | – |