Mary and Elisabeth

Käthe Kollwitz rarely created artwork related to biblical themes, but in the case of this print she produced an image of two Christian women whose identities as mothers seem to have deeply resonated with her. The scene derives from the Visitation, an episode recounted in the Gospel of Saint Luke in which a recently pregnant Mary visits her cousin Elizabeth to reveal the news of her own divine conception. At the moment when they meet, Elizabeth also becomes miraculously pregnant with John the Baptist. Both women are united in their roles as mothers of holy children, a relationship that is visually reinforced by the stylistic affinities shared by the two figures. Like Mary and Elizabeth, whose own sons would be martyred, Kollwitz also experienced the tragedy of losing a child. Her son died while fighting in World War I, and his death inspired the subject matter of many of her prints during the following decades.