My Mother

Date

1926

Creator

The life of Ivan Meštrović, a journey from impoverished peasant beginnings to international fame and recognition, reads like a fairytale. Throughout his career, his sculpture presented his changing attitude toward two of the most difficult issues for human beings to resolve--nationalism and religion. Because Meštrović chose to spend the last years of his life at Notre Dame as sculptor in residence, the University's campus has become a repository for works of art that tell his remarkable story [...] Mother, dating from 1926, is a version of a portrait Meštrović first made in 1908 or 1909. The figure wears the traditional dress of a nineteenth-century Croatian peasant and sits with hands clasped, perhaps in prayer. The shallow, symmetrical relief carving of drapery on her shoulders and arms is similar to that used in the robes of the [Ashbaugh] Madonna. By dressing her in idealized clothing like the Virgin, Meštrović ingeniously showed his respect for his mother. He simultaneously stressed her humanity through the naturalism of her face and hands. from Snite Museum of Art, Selected Works: Snite Museum of Art (Notre Dame, 2005)