Absence

I went back to the Raphael drawings at the Ashmolean Museum, with my mum this time. It was good to see them when the gallery was less crowded and to give them more time. On Saturday, struck by the many images of male aggression and of female nurturing I wondered when the first image of a man caring for children was produced.

Today I counted the drawings with men showing compassion. Two. A man carrying an older man on his back and another of toddler Jesus playing at Mary's feet and Joseph looking on from the background. Of course I'm not taking the early 16th century to task for its unawareness of feminism. But I am musing on the stories we have inherited through the generations.