One of the most interesting pieces I found in St. Paul’s Cathedral was Henry Moore’s Mother and Child: Hood. Moore’s semi-abstract sculptures helped create a very specific form of modernism in the United Kingdom.
Completed in 1983 out of travertine marble, Moore’s take on Michelangelo’s Pieta is able to convey the grieving Mary after the crucifixion of Jesus Christ using minimal detail. The characteristic disparity in size between the Madonna and Christ becomes further exaggerated through the abstraction of form. The way Moore nests the two figures strengthens the maternal relationship by creating an almost wombic cradle.
Seeing more contemporary works of art in such historical spaces highlights the interconnectedness of their simultaneous presence in the city.
Henry Moore’s Mother and Child