Donna Ferrato
American, b. 1949

Lovers and Holy Child Nun, Venice, Italy, 1986
Inkjet print

 

Lovers and Holy Child Nun is part of Donna Ferrato’s fifty-year-long series “Holy,” which focuses on depicting the full dimension of women’s lives: their minds, emotions, sexualities, and spiritualities. In this photograph, two lovers embrace in the background with a Catholic nun looking back at Ferrato and her camera, both observers of an intimate and typically private moment. In this one image, Ferrato depicts two ends of the spectrum of roles women are expected to embody: the devout, abstinent nun and the young, sexually liberated lover.

Gift of Vinay and Priyanka Vazirani in honor of the Museum’s 75th anniversary, 2020

Visual Description: This is a black-and-white photograph, measuring roughly 1 ½ feet by 2 feet. In the background are two young people, sitting against a large stone façade of a building and kissing. In the center of the photograph is an older woman wearing a Catholic nun’s habit and large glasses. The nun is looking directly at the camera.