Maternity by Antonietta Raphael Mafa
Maternity by Antonietta Raphael Mafai
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For Florence, the mother of all artists. After the Florence flood, Lithuanian sculptor Raphael Mafai donated her almost life-size bronze Maternity (1968) to Florence's Civic Museums. It is now on show in the Museo Novecento's first-floor outdoor loggia. The piece represents a mother standing protectively over her toddler, but the artist's title is more than just literal. "By maternity, I mean the beginning of the world," she once wrote, "…the beginning of things…of all things." Co-founder of the Scuola di Via Cavour, her movement was an offshoot of the more all-encompassing Scuola Romana. She turned to sculpture in 1930 after painting turned into a source of strain in her marriage: "It is difficult for two painters to live together," Raphael Mafai admitted. Critic Cesare Brandi believed the artist had made the right decision and christened her "Italy's sole female sculptor".
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'Figurative' loyalty
Raphael Mafai was a maverick artist at a time when Abstractionism was all the rage in Italy.
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'Creating' motherhood
Raphael Mafai loved "Maternity" as a theme, but how did she see motherhood in practical terms?
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"Living memory"
Relatives celebrate the Maternity restoration with us.
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