Family Matters: Spiritual and Maternal Connections in European Art and Patronage

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Family Matters: Spiritual and Maternal Connections in European Art and Patronage is written by Elizabeth Lisot-Nelson and published by Centre for Renaissance and Reformation Studies. It's available with International Standard Book Number or ISBN identification 0772711844 (ISBN 10) and 9780772711847 (ISBN 13).

In Premodern Europe, families played a significant role in commissioning artworks as well as in choosing what iconography was used. The nine essays in this volume highlight the often-overlooked contributions of matriarchs, actual or iconographic, to this process. They look at mothers, wives, mistresses, sisters, and nuns who served as patrons, models of inspiration, and even as artists themselves. While most maternal imagery was positive, occasionally it could reveal motherly instincts that had gone awry, as in the case of the wild woman of Northern European folklore who abducted children. Whether manifesting as portrayals of charity, labour, sacrifice, piety, compassion, or grief, the imagery evoked by spiritual and maternal connections among kinsfolk played an essential role in European iconography and creative output. Based upon investigations in archives and manuscripts, along with written and visual sources, the essays in this volume thus make a vital contribution to the growing body of research on the importance of family matters in artistic development.