Slapende naakte vrouw en spelende kinderen 1520 - 1540

Curator: What a dreamy tableau. Looking at this work, attributed to Raffaele da Montelupo and created sometime between 1520 and 1540, I feel myself wanting to join the sleeper in her repose. Editor: Yes, there’s an immediate sensuality, isn’t there? But I'm also struck by how actively the drawing contests idealized notions of Renaissance beauty and feminine passivity, perhaps because the main figure is not a goddess but simply a naked woman resting among playing children, maybe even the artist's preparatory study from life. Curator: Exactly! It is sketched with pencil and ink; the details aren't perfect; some children don’t seem proportionate at all. I suppose this raw quality, an unfinished touch, only intensifies the feeling that we’re looking at something very intimate, perhaps an encounter with real people that happened almost spontaneously. Editor: True. Also, the abundance of children feels less allegorical and more earthly. Considering it in the context of the Italian Renaissance and its humanistic leanings, perhaps Montelupo subverts the mythologized nude by positioning the mother not as some symbolic Venus but instead within her complex role as a maternal figure. Curator: That’s lovely – it flips the power dynamic of that ubiquitous trope. Though, I admit, those scores of mischievous babies cavorting with what appear to be musical instruments make it difficult for me to completely cast aside allegory. Their numbers evoke something, even if I can't quite name it. Editor: I would posit that those seemingly harmless figures become a powerful symbolic counterpoint when viewed alongside issues of gender roles and expectations of motherhood within the era, but the truth is that so little is known for sure about Montelupo and this particular piece. It invites many readings, even competing interpretations. Curator: Perhaps. I wonder if Raffaele would be happy that we are still dreaming up ways to see his “Slapende naakte vrouw en spelende kinderen" centuries later. Editor: That is the remarkable gift that art provides: a continuing exchange. Thank you, Raffaele da Montelupo, and thank you to this artwork for inviting us to reflect today on a wide spectrum of experiences and considerations related to motherhood, identity, art, and culture.