Death in Childbirth

It was not until the Renaissance that childbirth was depicted in art. With one in ten pregnancies ending in death for the mother, the art is overly optimistic: the mother is shown sitting up cradling her new child smiling, the midwife in the background. Only two pieces show the risks that come with childbirth- both tombs.

 

The first Tomb belongs to Ilaria del Carretto, the wife of the wealthy Lucchese merchant Paolo Guinigi. It was created around 1405 in Lucca Cathedral by sculptor Jacopo della Quercia. It shows her in fine gowns, hands on her rounded stomach- emphases on the cause of her death. It joins many pieces commissioned by husbands after their wives deaths, though the only to show the wife dead.

The only depiction of childbirth that exists that ends in tragedy is a scene shown on the tomb of Francesca Pitti Tornabuoni and her stillborn child, wife of Giovanni Tornabuoni. Created by Andrea del Verrocchio in 1477 in Florence, the scene has two parts. On the left side it shows seven men and three women, an elderly woman presenting the stillborn child to the father. On the right eight women are surrounding the barely alive mother; one holding her up, one checking for a pulse, and one crouched on the floor over the lifeless body of the baby.