ABSTRACT
Prints from the early modern era were some of the rst works of art to fully develop themes of the secular world, and o en these prints expressed social concerns and tensions. Images of the World Upside Down typically depict scenes of peasant life and inversions of animals and men, men and women and children and their parents, such as the version published by Nicolò Nelli and Ewout Cornelisz Muller in the late sixteenth century (Figs 4.1 and 4.2). e primary subject in these prints is role reversal, such as women doing men’s work or beating their husbands. e theme of the World Upside Down has been discussed in art historical scholarship in regards to gender con icts and social hierarchies, yet little attention has been given to children.1 In World Upside Down prints, the children, typically boys, are o en depicted whipping their fathers with the assistance of their mothers and rebelling against other established authorities, such as their teachers and masters (Figs 4.3 and 4.4).
