a closer look

Last week, you saw the progression to the final design (Below):

Today, we have a closer look at the figures in that design (Below):

(Above) Working clockwise from the top, we see that the African sculpture (AS) has linked arms with the Medieval Madonna (MM) . The child held by another MM on the other side has placed a hand on the child of AS…..who doesn’t look all that happy about the touch.

(Below) The two little hooligans at MM’s feet are based on Hellenistic statues in the Vatican Museum. The one on the right is Boy with Goose, by Boethos of Chalcedon (300BCE), also called Boy Strangling a Goose. No info on his buddy brandishing a stick.

(Below) A maternal sculpture from ancient India is looking down at a small Chinese baby in his bath and his broken Roman doll. Meanwhile, the two babies and getting acquainted. I worked to get the two crowns (the one on the Madonna and the one on the Aztec mother) to resemble each other, at least a little.

(Below) I think the dark maternal figure on the far left is a Native American figure, but not certain. Then a Medieval Madonna and child carved of ivory next to an African mother and child, also ivory, with a full-flowing Madonna and her robes. Three of these four figures are nursing their infants. At their feet are the Roman doll, an African child figure, and two Pre-Columbian figures of children. I especially like the way the African child is holding onto the Christ Child’s foot.

Below) We have an ancient Egyptian mom nursing her baby, a Medieval Madonna, and a mother from India. On the far right is a mother and child from Japan, with the baby reaching down to pat the Indian child on the head.

(Below) After the Japanese maternal figure, we have an Inuit mom carrying her baby on her back, looking at an African child on her mom’s back. The African mom has two kids, the other one is looking at the Olmec stone child. There are two children sitting there, a Mayan (Aztec?) kid who looks like he’s been pushed over, and the Baby Horus, from Egypt.

(Below0 Almost finished here: another Medieval Madonna, holding out her child, who’s stepping right up to the carved African figure (who looks rather surprised by this). An ancient Roman mom & kid are behind them and we’re back to the original Medieval mother.

While I was trying to find out if this figure was Aztec or Mayan or Olmec or whatever, I came across some rather odd figures:

By an artist named Nadin Ospera. Couln’’t find more on the website, but I suggest you do a Google image search for Nadin Ospera if they tickle your fancy.

OK, that’s all for now, and I don’t think I’ll get a new post up next week(travelling).

Stay safe. Stay sane.

Diane