Madonna
About this artwork
Edvard Munch took an experimental approach to his printmaking. The first stage of lithography involves drawing the design directly onto a smooth slab of limestone, using an oil-based crayon. Unusually, Munch would hoist the heavy stone onto his easel, so that he could draw freely onto its surface as if it were canvas or paper. Munch worked with printmakers in Berlin to rework this sexualised Madonna more than 100 times in different variations. The decorative border shows swimming sperm and a foetus to symbolise conception and pregnancy (clearly blasphemous in the context of the Madonna, or Virgin Mary).
Published September 2022
-
artist:Edvard Munch (1863 - 1944) Norwegian
-
title:Madonna
-
date created:1895
-
materials:Lithograph (black ink) on Japan paper
-
measurements:60.40 x 44.30 cm
-
object type:
-
credit line:Private Collection on long term loan to the National Galleries of Scotland
-
accession number:GML 1974
-
gallery:
-
glossary:
Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch
Norwegian artist Munch trained as an engineer before turning to art in 1881. Around 1885, he moved from painting in an impressionist style to an art dealing with his own emotional turmoil. Munch's most common themes are jealousy, tragedy, sickness and the awakening of sexual desire. His works often...