I believe the practice was rather widespread (?global) in the past, but can anyone suggest what country, culture, or time period is being depicted here?
Found at Miss Folly.
Addendum: I found this at Wikipedia:
A painting known as the De Wikkellkinderen (The Swaddled Children), from 1617, is thought to represent a depiction of TTTS. The drawing shows twins that appear to be identical, but one is pale (possibly anemic), while the other is red (possibly polycythemic). Analysis of the family histories of the owners of the painting suggests that the twins did not survive to adulthood, although whether that is due to TTTS is uncertain.And a major hat tip to AF, who accessed The Lancet to extract this information:
From The Lancet, Volume 356, Issue 9232, Pages 847 - 848, 2 September 2000
"A Case of Twin-to-Twin Transfusion in 1617" by H.M. Berger, F. de Waard, and Y. Molenaar
"However, it is well documented that the twins were boys. They were the children of Jacob Dirkszoon de Graeff (1571-1638), mayor of Amsterdam, and Aeltje Boelens (1579-1620), and were the nephews of P C Hooft. The De Graeff family's shield is pictured in the right and left upper corners of the painting and the date "den 7 April 1617" is just legible between them. The family's genealogical records, however, do not mention them and it seems likely that they died soon after birth, possibly on the day on which they were born[....] We do not know whether the babies were alive or dead when they were painted. If the babies died on the day of their birth, they would have been painted posthumously. Portrayal of deceased children, which began in the 15th century, was a common practice in the 17th century, but gradually disappeared thereafter. In this period, dead babies could be portrayed with their eyes open to show that they were liveborn rather than stillborn."
And here's the link for more details about twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.
You learn something every day.