Artist: Unknown, Chorotega, Costa Rica
Date: 300-800
Medium: Ceramic
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts

This mother is seated on a metate, a slightly concave stone on which corn is ground to be made into tortillas, tamales, and other staple foods throughout Mexico and Central America.

Artist:Unknown, India
Date: c.1000
Medium: Sculpture
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Hindu deity Parvati formed her son Ganesha from dirt collected from her own body, so that he could guard her while she bathed when her husband Shiva was away.

Shiva, Parvati and their two sons are depicted in this sculpture. The sons can be seen in a detail on the next slide.

Shiva and Parvati's two sons, Ganesha and Skanda, are a little tricky to find in this sculpture. They are shown on a much smaller scale than their parents.

In this detail view, Skanda is to your left, next to Shiva's bent leg. Elephant-headed Ganesha is on your right, next to Parvati's lion mount. Use the zoom tool for an even closer look.

Artist: Segna di Buonaventura, Italian
Date: c.1310
Medium: Painting
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts

During the Middle Ages and Renaissance, when the Catholic Church was a major patron of the arts, the Virgin Mary and her son Jesus were very common subjects.

Artist: Artist(s) Unknown, possibly Master of the Madonna Grog or Aert van den Bossche, formerly Master of the Embroidered Foliage, Netherlands
Date: c. 1492-1498
Medium: Painting
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Learn more about the rich history and symbolism of this detailed mother and child painting by clicking on the link found on the next slide.

Artist: Albrecht Dürer, German
Date: c. 1489
Medium: Print
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts

The monkey in this Renaissance image is symbolic of human greed and gluttony. This is in stark contrast to the purity represented by the Virgin Mary. It is thought that the artist may have had the opportunity to view real monkeys and sketch them from life before creating this image and others like it, something somewhat unusual considering the time and place the image was made.

Artist: Nicolas de Largillière, French
Date: c.1699
Medium: Painting
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts

This mother and son from French nobilty wear sumptuous fashions popular in the late 1600s and early 1700s. This includes Madame Aubry's elaborate hairstyle, which is known to have been popular for more than a decade.

Artist: Kitagawa Utamaro, Japanese
Date: 18th-19th century
Medium: Print
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts

This mother plays peek-a-boo with her child. Children in Japan are honored as precious and delightful gifts on Children's Day, which is celebrated on the 5th day of the 5th month each year.

Artist: Sir John Everett Millais, P. R. A.. British
Date: 1856
Medium: Painting
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts

The mother and children in this family portrait welcome their husband and father home at the conclusion of the Crimean War (1853-1856). Based on what you see in this picture, what is your sense about how everyone feels about his return home? What do you see that makes you say that?

Artist: William-Adolphe Bouguereau, French
Date: 1880
Medium: Painting
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Bouguereau often gave his paintings poetic titles that referenced the Classical or Biblical past, as is the case with this painting called Temptation. However, owners often lovingly assigned their own alternate titles to his works. This painting and another like it where a woman offers a child an orange were known at various times by titles such as Maternal Joy and Mother's Treasure.

Artist: Mary Cassatt
Date: 1891
Medium: Print
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts

American artist Mary Cassatt exhibited with the predominantly male circle of the Impressionists in Paris in the late 1800s. She is best known for her tender and intimate images of mothers and children. The examples in this slide and the next are very typical of Cassatt's work.

Artist: Unknown, Yombe, Democratic Republic of Congo
Date: 20th century
Medium: Sculpture
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Take a moment to study this image. Use the zoom tool to see even more detail.

Based on your observations, describe the relationship between figures of mother and child in this sculpture. What do you see that makes you say that?

Go to the next slide for audio commentary about this work of art.

Artist: Edward S. Curtis, American
Date: 1926
Medium: Photograph
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts

The mother in this image is using a cradleboard to easily and safely carry her infant with her wherever she goes. See an example of a cradleboard from  the collection of the Minneapolis Institute of Arts in the next slide.

Artist: Dorothea Lange
Date: 1936
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Katherine McIntosh, who was 4-years-old when this photograph was taken of her family, said to CNN in December 2008:  "The picture came out in the paper to show the people what hard times was...We were ashamed of it. We didn't want no one to know who we were."

Artist: Ben Shahn, American
Date: 1943-1944
Medium: Mixed media
Institution: Walker Art Center

Artist Ben Shahn said to his biographer:

"During the war, I worked in the Office of War Information. We were supplied with a constant stream of material, photographic and other kinds of documentation of the decimation within enemy territory. There were the secret confidential horrible facts of the cartloads of dead...so many of which I knew well and cherished. There were the churches destroyed, the villages, the monasteries—Monte Cassino and Ravenna. At that time I painted only one theme, "Europa," you might call it. Particularly I painted Italy as I lamented it, or feared what it might have become."

Artist: Louise Nevelson, American
Date: 1947
Medium: Sculpture
Institution: Walker Art Center

Like mother, like son. Artist Louise Nevelson's only son Myron "Mike" Nevelson is also a well-respected artist.

Artist: Henry Moore
Date: 1956
Medium: Sculpture
Institution: Walker Art Center

Here's the link to an article from the Courtauld Institute in London about the theme of mother and child in Henry Moore's work:

http://www.courtauld.ac.uk/people/stallabrass_julian/PDF/Moore.pdf

Artist: Henry Moore
Date: 1960-1961
Medium: Sculpture
Institution: Walker Art Center

Artist: Joan Moss
Date: 1986
Medium: Photograph
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Artist: Wing Young Huie
Date: 1994
Medium: Photographs
Institution: Minneapolis Institute of Arts

Wing Young Huie lives and works in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St. Paul, Minnesota). Frogtown is a St. Paul neighborhood.

Learn more about the artist and his work at:  http://www.wingyounghuie.com/