An Italian Serio-Comic map of Europe during the Great War

Anonymous.

L'Europa nel 1915.
Milan: Luigi Ronchi di Candido Varoli, 1915. Chromolithograph, sheet 450 x 650mm.

Laid on canvas.

A fascinating Italian satirical map of Europe, with caricatures for the countries at war. France is a cockerel pecking the nose of the German dachshund, whose picklehelm is being punched by a long-legged British sailor. Austria howls with pain as its hind leg is crushed by the Russian steamroller driven by a grinning polar bear, and he is stabbed in the back by a Serbian bayonet.
Partly based on the 'Hark Hark' map by Johnson Riddle, this version seems to date to before the Treaty of London brought Italy into the war in May 1915; a later version has the placid Italian shown here clubbing the Austrian dog with the butt of his rifle.

See SOUCACOS: Satirical Maps p.216-7 for later issue.
Stock ID : 22636