Holding the Child: Mothers, Madonnas & Loss in Renaissance Art

Join us for an in-depth but accessible talk on representations of mothers and motherhood, love, loss and hope, in Renaissance art. Book in person tickets here. From churches and palaces to private homes, depictions of mothers—especially the Madonna—are ubiquitous in Renaissance art. The idealised images of the Madonna and Child offered powerful visions of maternal love and divine protection, yet some Renaissance paintings also contain an awareness of suffering and loss, with the Madonna appearing to foresee her son’s ultimate fate. These works were often made for domestic settings and may have been viewed particularly by women, making their idealised representations of motherhood potentially complex or even painful for those unable to have children, and those left behind when childbirth goes horribly wrong. Drawing on paintings from the early sixteenth to the early seventeenth century, this talk offers a wide-ranging exploration of motherhood, vulnerability and the changing visual language of childbirth in Renaissance art.