Before the Madonna there was ‘Matrutva’

Few relationships have inspired artists as deeply as that between a mother and her child. Across cultures, this universal bond has been expressed through tenderness, sacrifice, protection and unconditional love. The arrival of Botticelli's celebrated Madonna and Child in India offers a rare opportunity to look beyond the Renaissance and revisit an equally rich artistic tradition. Centuries before Europe immortalised the Madonna, Indian sculptors and painters had already created some of history's most profound and enduring images of motherhood.