771 - Mother and Child

Mother and Child Rome 3rd–4th century AD Marble Height 62 cm, width 43 cm, depth 20 cm This sculpture is among the earliest representations of the Madonna from the late Roman Empire. The seated mother with a child on her lap already appears in Celtic images of the mother goddess as an embodiment of fertility, as well as in Egyptian representations of mother and child, such as Isis and Horus. These characteristics are also found in sculptures of Cybele, a mother goddess particularly well known and venerated in Anatolia. Such representations reached Athens in the fifth century BC. Cybele was subsequently incorporated into the Roman pantheon and became known as Magna Mater. A new form of worship developed following the Sibylline oracle of 205 BC, which recommended bringing Magna Mater to Rome as an important ally in its second war against Carthage. Recast as a Trojan goddess, she became the ancestral mother of the Roman Empire. Roman hegemony facilitated the spread of her cult throughout the empire. A second-century AD statuette of Cybele in the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (AC1992.152.37) offers a comparison for the figure’s pose and sculptural treatment. Here, however, the libation bowl and lions have been replaced with Christian attributes. The earliest Christian representations of this type, depicting Mary and the Christ Child, appear on sarcophagi from the third century AD onwards. The present example takes the form of a monumental sculpture. The seated female figure wears a garment girdled beneath the breasts and a mantle wrapped around her shoulders and draped across her lap. The mantle is only summarily carved, whereas the garment beneath is rendered in straight, conspicuously doughy folds. These fall in thick ridges over the figure’s shoes. With her left hand, the woman holds an open book resting on her lap, directing the viewer’s attention towards this attribute, which may represent Holy Scripture. With her right hand, she draws the naked child close to her. The child balances on her right knee and faces the viewer directly. The mother’s tender gesture further emphasises the intimacy between mother and child.