Images and Shapes of Fertility
Art Critic Laura Cummings just wrote a gorgeous essay on the portrayal of fertility and infertility in art in Sunday’s Observer. She says this about a postcard depicting the Madonna del Parto by Piero della Francesca:
I had always thought the Madonna was supposed to be pregnant - she has one hand to her waist as if easing the weight, and the other just below her breast where a seam in her overdress has been unstitched, as if her clothes were growing too tight. But I wondered, suddenly, whether she was not pregnant at all, just gesturing at a potential pregnancy, representing a mystical future she could only imagine.
Her assumptions were thrown into question because in real life, her assumptions had just been thrown into question:
I know exactly why I had this brief crisis of faith in Piero’s mysterious painting. I had just believed - hoped - that I was pregnant: pregnant again after the loss of a baby….I found I could not look at paintings or sculptures of pregnant women at all at that time without wondering whether they were really, conclusively pregnant.
And I can relate to that hyper-awareness. Ms. Cummings goes on to explore what we paint, what we image when we want to convey fertility and conversely, what shapes, what sights imply infertility.
I can hardly summon even one image to mind. Barren land, seeds cast on stony ground, the empty vessel, the drought - Biblical metaphors, all, that speak irrefutably for themselves without need of further illustration.
She wonders who chooses which paintings fertility clinics purchase to decorate their walls? Why? What things does someone longing to conceive want to see? I know that many of my MySpace friends adorn their virtual spaces with babies, cute things, little toes, rattles, little feet. Others, like myself, completely avoid the imagery for fear I’m being too presumptuous, bordering on jinxing myself.
With what images do you surround yourself?
Tags: , ART, fertility, fertility blog, Gabrielle Sedor, images, infertility, Laura Cummings, reproductive health, sculpture, womens healthRelated Stories
POSTED IN: feminism, living with infertility, motherhood, pregnancy
1 opinion for Images and Shapes of Fertility
Jendeis
Apr 3, 2008 at 7:48 am
What an interesting idea to ponder. A month ago or so, Mel (Stirrup Queen) did a post about an artist who was painting empty chairs to symbolize her feelings with infertility (can’t find the link, but loved the picture).
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