Fra Angelico

Last night we went to a lecture on Fra Angelico at the met. I am now trying to hunt down a slide the lecturer showed. For the last month or so I have read a blog following a woman's effort to get pregnant and she is on my mind a lot. I think about her when I get bored or frustrated with my toddler and when I talk to my pregnant friends, and when I talk to my friends who are trying to get pregnant. Fra Angelico did a lot of work about annunciation and during the lecture I kept thinking of this woman, and the history of women and fertility and childbirth and faith and responsibility. Of course it made me want to quilt too. There is one painting he did where the Angel is speaking to Mary telling her about this awesome responsibly (as a 14 year old I would have said no way!).

Here is the panel

The full altarpiece

Detail

Now I want to figure out a composition and use that passage embroidered onto the quilt. It would have to be for the right person. I would like to make it for her, as a prayer, but I think it would be too painful if she got it before she had a child (through birth or adoption or otherwise). Also who the hell am I? Just a snotty fertile. My husband did a painting on the annunciation, but I think this would have a different feel. Mine would be from the perspective of a mother, a sister and someone who prays for strangers to get pregnant.