Birth figures
about: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/320126770
about: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/320127339
about: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/320128352
about: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/320128489
about: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/320132875
about: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/320133468
about: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/320155610
about: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/320204050
about: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/330173840
about: DefinedTerm
  alternate name: Obstetrics--Europe, Western--History
about: DefinedTerm
  alternate name: Medical illustration--History
about: DefinedTerm
  alternate name: Illustration of books--Europe, Western
about: DefinedTerm
  alternate name: Pregnancy in art
about: DefinedTerm
  alternate name: Childbirth in art
about: DefinedTerm
  alternate name: Fetus in art
about: DefinedTerm
  alternate name: Midwifery--Europe, Western--History
about: DefinedTerm
  alternate name: Medicine and art--Europe, Western--History
abstract: "Birth figures are printed images of the pregnant womb, always shown in series, that depict the variety of ways in which a fetus can present for birth. Historian Rebecca Whiteley coined the term and here offers the first systematic analysis of the images’ creation, use, and impact. Whiteley reveals their origins in ancient medicine and explores their inclusion in many medieval gynecological manuscripts, focusing on their explosion in printed midwifery and surgical books in Western Europe from the mid-sixteenth to the mid-eighteenth century. During this period, birth figures formed a key part of the visual culture of medicine and midwifery and were widely produced. They reflected and shaped how the pregnant body was known and treated. And by providing crucial bodily knowledge to midwives and surgeons, birth figures were also deeply entangled with wider cultural preoccupations with generation and creativity, female power and agency, knowledge and its dissemination, and even the condition of the human in the universe. Birth Figures studies how different kinds of people understood childbirth and engaged with midwifery manuals, from learned physicians to midwives to illiterate listeners. Rich and detailed, this vital history reveals the importance of birth figures in how midwifery was practiced and in how people, both medical professionals and lay readers, envisioned and understood the mysterious state of pregnancy."-- Provided by publisher.
author: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/310219485
creator: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/310219485
language: eng
subject of: Statement
  additional type: lang
  text: In English.
temporal coverage: 1500-1799
work example: https://id.rijksmuseum.nl/301323685
type: CreativeWork

PropertyValue
property ID: NL-AmRIJ
value: 323685