Childbearing, birth, midwifery, maternity

A scene takes place in a red box, lined with black and red diamond and triangle designs for borders. In the center, a woman sites with a child in her lap. She wears a spotted dress, her hair up, and a nose ring and bindi. The child reaches one hand and places it atop her head, and the other down towards her own upward hands. Surrounding them are seven other figures. One kneels before them, offering his hands up, and another fans the woman from behind. The remaining five figures seem to play together in front of the throne on which the woman and child sit.
Indian
The birth of the Kauravas from a Mahabharata series
ink and opaque watercolor on paper
5 5/16 in x 11 1/8 in (13.5 cm x 28.3 cm)
Museum purchase, Acquisition Fund
Carved wooden object depicting a female figure with flexed knees carrying a child on her back.
Yombe
Maternity Figure
wood
4 3/8 in x 1 3/8 in x 1 1/2 in (11.1 cm x 3.5 cm x 3.8 cm)
Gift of Denise Miner Stanford
Clay female figure seated on a stool, holding a nursing baby. 

Maternity Figure
terracotta with white pigment
9 5/8 in x 4 1/2 in x 5 13/16 in (24.5 cm x 11.5 cm x 14.8 cm)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart Pinsof
Painting of a woman holding two sleeping nude babies, wearing white fabric draped over her head and shoulders with abundant blue-green fabric wrapped and loosely gathered around the rest of her body standing in front of a lush background with areas of blue sky peaking through the foliage.
William-Adolphe Bouguereau
Charity (La Charité)
oil on canvas
54 ⅞ in x 44 ¼ in x 2 ½ in (139.38 cm x 112.4 cm x 6.35 cm);54 ⅞ in x 44 ¼ in x 2 ½ in (139.38 cm x 112.4 cm x 6.35 cm)
Bequest of Henry C. Lewis
A young woman, dressed in long robes with her veil drawn over her head, sits next to a wall holding an infant in her lap. She is turned slightly to her right and gazes sweetly upon the child who twists to face the viewer and holds an apple in his left hand. A stream meanders through the landscape of trees and city walls behind them.
Albrecht Dürer
Madonna by the Wall
engraving on laid paper
5 13/16 x 3.9 in. (14.76 x 10 cm);19 3/8 x 14 3/8 in. (49.21 x 36.51 cm)
Museum Purchase
This painting shows the interior of a rustic house with a stone floor and rough rock walls. In the center foreground, a woman is crouched beside a wooden cradle. She has her arms around a sleeping baby whose face is highlighted by a ray of sunshine coming from an open window. Household items hang from the rafters and there is a spinning wheel beside her. A dog sits by an open hearth on the left. The color scheme is predominantly tones of brown, except for her red scarf, green shirt and the bluish purple of the hills seen outside the window.<br />
John Phillip
The Highlander's Home (Sunshine in the Cottage)
oil on canvas
20 15/16 in. x 27 1/4 in. ( 53.2 cm x 69.2 cm )
Museum purchase made possible by the Alfred E. Pernt Memorial Fund in honor of Doctor of Technical Sciences Max H. J. Pernt and his wife Anna Pernt (née Mueller)

Figure of Woman Sitting Nursing Baby
Pottery
7 3/8 in x 4 1/8 in x 5 1/16 in (18.7 cm x 10.5 cm x 12.8 cm)
Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Stewart Pinsof
Thomas J. Reaume
Birth of Science, from "Portfolio 2"
gelatin silver print on paper
14 in x 11 in (35.6 cm x 27.9 cm)
Gift of the artist
A curved stone, originally a facing on the drum of a small stupa, carved with a narrative scene.
Artist Unknown, Gandhara (Ancient Pakistan and Afghanistan)
Scenes from the Life of the Buddha: Adoration of the Buddha Dimpakara, Conception, Prophecy, Birth (architectural fragment)
stone
6 1/2 in. x 15 3/8 in. x 2 5/16 in. ( 16.5 cm x 39 cm x 5.8 cm )
Gift of Iuliana and Mark Phillips
This painted miniature Shahnama page was made by the Shiraz and Timurid schools, ca. 1460 in Baghdad, Iraq. The painting is done in ink, opaque watercolor and gold leaf on paper. The scene depicts the <em>Birth of Rustam </em>from the Shahnama, the Persian book of kings. 
Iranian
The Birth of Rustam, from the Shahnama of Firdausi
ink, opaque watercolor, and gold leaf on paper
10 7/16 in. x 7 3/16 in. ( 26.5 cm x 18.2 cm )
Museum Purchase
This painted panel depicts an intimate domestic setting consisting of a bedchamber with a fireplace and a smaller vaulted antechamber that opens out on a garden. A haloed woman wearing a white veil rests in bed, having recently given birth. She leans to her right as she reaches toward a basin held by an attendant and looks across the room to the infant who is held on the lap of another servant. A halo also encircles the head of the child and a pair of angels fly above her. Several other attendants and midwives bustle about the room, while another woman, more richly clad than the servants, gazes on the child from her seat at the foot of the bed. In the antechamber sits a haloed man in a long white beard, who leans forward to hear news of the birth from the child standing in front of him. A companion sits behind him and a servant passes through the door into the bedchamber.
Sano di Pietro
The Nativity of the Virgin
tempera and gold on panel
16 7/16 in x 22 7/16 in x 1 ⅜ in (41.75 cm x 56.99 cm x 3.49 cm);16 7/16 in x 22 7/16 in x 1 ⅜ in (41.75 cm x 56.99 cm x 3.49 cm);12 ⅜ in x 18 11/16 in x 3/16 in (31.43 cm x 47.47 cm x 0.48 cm)
Museum purchase made possible by the Thirtieth Anniversary Project and the Friends of the Museum of Art
In this painting, rendered entirely in gray monochrome, a technique known as grisaille, an angel descends on a bank of clouds toward a woman who kneels on the floor before a prie-dieu. She looks downward and turns away from the angel in a gesture of humility, and her head is illuminated by the light from a luminescent dove in the cloud above her. A bearded man looks down from the summit of the cloud, nearly engulfed in light, and a number of cherubim appear throughout the scene. The robust forms and grounded materiality of the woman's body and the furniture around her give way to light-filled clouds and diffused forms in the upper part of the canvas as the heavenly and worldly realms come together.
Mariano Salvador de Maella
The Annunciation
oil on canvas
36 3/4 in. x 28 5/8 in. ( 93.35 cm x 72.71 cm )
Museum Purchase

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Adulthood — by seth@whirl-i-gig.com (February 13 2017 @ 12:09 pm)
Aging — by seth@whirl-i-gig.com (February 13 2017 @ 12:09 pm)
Anthropology — by seth@whirl-i-gig.com (February 13 2017 @ 12:09 pm)
Childbearing — by seth@whirl-i-gig.com (February 13 2017 @ 12:09 pm)
Children — by seth@whirl-i-gig.com (February 13 2017 @ 12:09 pm)
Comparative — by seth@whirl-i-gig.com (February 13 2017 @ 12:09 pm)
Domesticity — by seth@whirl-i-gig.com (February 13 2017 @ 12:09 pm)
Family — by seth@whirl-i-gig.com (February 13 2017 @ 12:09 pm)
Femininity — by seth@whirl-i-gig.com (February 13 2017 @ 12:09 pm)
Gender — by seth@whirl-i-gig.com (February 13 2017 @ 12:09 pm)
Human relationships — by seth@whirl-i-gig.com (February 13 2017 @ 12:09 pm)
Humanity and humanness — by seth@whirl-i-gig.com (February 13 2017 @ 12:09 pm)
Motherhood — by seth@whirl-i-gig.com (February 13 2017 @ 12:09 pm)
Mothers — by seth@whirl-i-gig.com (February 13 2017 @ 12:09 pm)
Parenthood — by seth@whirl-i-gig.com (February 13 2017 @ 12:09 pm)
Parents — by seth@whirl-i-gig.com (February 13 2017 @ 12:09 pm)
Social and cultural conventions — by seth@whirl-i-gig.com (February 13 2017 @ 12:09 pm)
Stages of life — by seth@whirl-i-gig.com (February 13 2017 @ 12:09 pm)
Women — by seth@whirl-i-gig.com (February 13 2017 @ 12:09 pm)

Part of 8 Learning Collections

American Orientalist art at the turn of the 20th century
<p>America Encounters Asia in Art</p>

71 Collection Object Sources

Maternity Figure (1984/1.257)
Maternity Figure (1983/2.174)
Nativity (2007/2.136)
Nativity (2008/2.402)
Sleeping Infant (1965/2.77)
A Gitana - Granada (2000/2.143.2)
Madonna and Child (1961/1.176)
Woodland Night (2014/1.621)
Anthony (2012/2.19)
Maternity Figure (2000/2.118)
Maternidad (1951/2.50)
Pendant (1983/2.143)
Woman with Plant (1981/2.170)
Madonna and Child (2008/2.106)
Madonna and Child (2008/2.107)
Midwife Goddess (1989/2.118)
Vase (2002/2.206)
Untitled (1993/2.63)
Mother and Child (2015/2.140)
Mother© (1985/2.19)

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April 7, 2020 7:46 p.m.

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