A female calendar

I Procreation

Today, most children born in Western countries stand a good chance of reaching adulthood.  Concerns surrounding pregnancy and birth are dumbed down in a life teeming with other more pressing concerns. This situation differs radically from past centuries. To live in Golden Age Spain was to live immersed in a series of successful or vain attempts to assure the continuity of families and dynasties.  On average, two children had to be born so that one might survive infancy. Modern life is ruled by a calendar of work and leisure. In Early Modern Spain, however, women in their fertile years perceived time according to the bodily transformations brought about by pregnancies (including a high ratio of abortions and miscarriages) and births. These cycles in turn dictated the rhythms of everyday life and practice, not only for childbearing women, but also for husbands, siblings, grandmothers, and godmothers. All of them were involved in actions such as hiring a midwife, a surgeon, or a wet-nurse, preparing a baptism, or ensuring the mother attended church after her period of rest.

The cycles of procreation overlapped within a family or community: those who visited a relative in childbed, bringing eggs, broth, or a fowl as a gift, were possibly also with child and able to empathise with the parturient mother. The Birth of the Virgin (1625-1630) by Francisco Zurbarán testifies to this shared female experience. The same idea is found in the numerous representations of the expectant Virgin visiting her pregnant cousin Elisabeth, which visualize the beautiful verses of the Gospel: «When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the infant leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit, cried out in a loud voice and said, ‘Most blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb.’». [Wolfram Aichinger]