approaching mother's day

[wytchcroft]

i've been thinking about this coming Mother's Day, which is on Sunday in the UK, and this image has been haunting me.




It's from the film Persona by Ingmar Bergman, in fact it is the opening of the movie - with the child in front of a screen hmself there's something science fiction about it, as if a celluloid mother was being used the way iron puppets have been used on monkeys. Something close but unreachable - maybe... maybe, it's hard to pin down exactly why i find it so powerful.

But as Mother's Day approaches and i am aware of many friends who are both mothers AND daughters now - and since i am of the age where i can see through both sets of eyes when it comes to empathising with peoples' family relationships - i think i like this image because it conjures the (often forgotten) ancient sense of Mystery around the maternal, from the Sphinx to the Madonna, yet it does so in a futuristic way.

Comments

[alex-kraine.livejournal.com]

Here's the Blessed Virgin, Mother Mary by Vrubel from the altar in St. Cyrill church
Look at those eyes. I am always fascinated by that look full of concern, care, pain.

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

that is - well, i am astonished!
thank you for posting such a remarkable piece, so emotional.
:))

[reginaclarejane.livejournal.com]

Oh.My.Goodness.
How beautiful.
The Blessed Mother and Her Son has always been one of my favorite images, whether Jesus as a Child or the Pieta...
Thank you so much, Alex for the image and wytchcroft for alerting me of it...
:)

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

i was stunned:))

[alex-kraine.livejournal.com]

Well, I cannot help being fascinated by that sacred painting. That is love that never dies. :)

[reginaclarejane.livejournal.com]

Oh, indeed... I love the tenderness here on both their faces...
My thanks once again.

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

http://alex-kraine.livejournal.com/24364.html?view=281132#t281132

it's an amazing story!:)

[alex-kraine.livejournal.com]

What is interesting, the model for Holy Virgin was Emilia Prakhova, the young wife of Hadrian Prahkov, PhD, professor of Fine Arts and Vrubel's patron in reconstruction of St. Cyrill's in Kiev. And of course, both young people fell in love with each other... It's an intriguing and sad story, and I will probably tell it a little bit later.

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

please, now you have made me curious indeed!:))

[alex-kraine.livejournal.com]

A bit later, my friend, a bit later. it's the story of an artist, lover and believer haunted by the Demon. :)

[neversremedy.livejournal.com]

Wow. I've never seen a madonna/child image quite so striking. Usually painters add drama happening around them, never just offered it in the simplicity of a look as this ... making the image far more complex. It's actually painful to look into her face.

[wytchcroft.livejournal.com]

yes! i felt it hit me physically. An amazing thing:)