Fertility Through the Ages

I was not aware before today that the Vatican Museum houses a vast variety of modern art. While the Museum is known for holding Renaissance paintings, aka the Sistine Chapel, and ancient sculptures, there is another layering of time in the structure. As we walked through the collection of modern art I was struck by immense intrigue, I had never experienced religious modern art before and most of the time I do not fully understand the concept of modern art itself. But as I turned a corner a very simple piece grabbed my attention and refused to let go. It was a painting by Henri Matisse entitled La Vierge a l’Enfant from 1949.The backdrop to the painting was a light beige that appeared like wood, and the only other color was black. Across the entire piece, which was grand in scale, were black outlines of leaf bundles, each forming the shape of an ‘X.’ In the center there was an outline of woman holding a child. While they did not have any faces, merely the shape of a head, the woman’s feminine attributes were heightened; namely her hips. The entire piece was hypnotically fluid as a result of the light brush strokes and how the mother and child’s bodies seemed to be so inter connected.

One of the things that immediately struck me about the painting was the obvious theme of fertility, which is one of the overarching themes of my site piece: The Ara Pacis. For those of you who are not as in love with the Ara Pacis as I am (visit Rome and you will be) here is a brief summary: the Ara Pacis is an altar from the Augustan age that illustrates the cycle of life and death. Matisse’s female figure paralleled the woman on the Tellus relief of the Ara Pacis, as Tellus (a pagan goddess) is holding two children as they suckle on her breasts. She is the epitome of fertility and illustrates peace, and in Matisse’s painting this symbol of a fruitful woman and the child continues. The imagery of a woman and child became a main symbol of the Catholic Church as a result of Mary and the baby Jesus; Matisse is most likely depicting these two holy figures. I realized as I stared at the La Vierge a l’Enfant, how the icon of a woman and child has existed for thousands of years, it is only the faces that change. Matisse strategically left his piece without faces as if leaving a spot for the next generation to place their thoughts. The concept of fertility has always been an inspiring concept as it gives hope towards the future. From the Augustan age where it promoted procreation with sculptural reliefs on a pagan altar to the Renaissance where this icon perpetuated the Catholic agenda to the 20^th century where a faceless woman and child forces the viewer to contemplate how this symbol will continue to evolve in the name of religion.