After Delhi, ‘One Mother, Many Mother Tongues’ art show comes to Bengaluru

After its debut in Delhi, the ‘One Mother, Many Mother Tongues’ art exhibition, curated by Naman P Ahuja and Andrea Anastasio, has arrived in Bengaluru, bringing together 26 artworks from India and Italy that explore representations of motherhood across cultures and centuries.

At the centre of the exhibition at the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Bengaluru, is Sandro Botticelli’s Madonna and Child, painted around 1490. The exhibition is being presented in Bengaluru for the first time after its Delhi presentation.

On display from August 20 to September 20, the exhibition brings together works spanning more than two millennia. Ancient Indian sculptures are placed alongside Etruscan works and a Renaissance masterpiece, allowing visitors to explore different interpretations of the mother, not only as one who gives birth, but also as a protector, nurturer and divine force.

Botticelli’s Madonna and Child is among the most prominent works in the exhibition. The Italian Renaissance master created numerous paintings of the Madonna and Child, making the theme a recurring part of his oeuvre. Here, his interpretation of motherhood is placed alongside Indian traditions of motherhood.

The Italian section includes ancient Etruscan representations of Mater Matuta, the protector of children and a symbol of dawn, renewal and regeneration. Her imagery is placed in dialogue with Indian mother-goddess traditions, highlighting both similarities and differences in how motherhood and femininity were understood.

Among the Indian works are two representations of Hariti, including a Kushan-period sculpture from the Mathura Museum and another from Andhra Pradesh. Associated with the protection of children, Hariti became an important figure in Buddhist traditions.

The exhibition also features a sculpture of Skandamata from a remote temple near Udaipur, along with works connected to the traditions of the Matrikas, the 64 Yoginis and the Dasa Mahavidyas.

The artworks are made from a variety of materials, including marble, schist, sandstone and terracotta. Together, they trace changing representations of motherhood across the Mediterranean and Indian cultural worlds.

The exhibition also draws attention to artworks that have remained largely unseen outside their original locations or museums. Placing these works alongside a globally recognised Renaissance masterpiece allows visitors to encounter lesser-known artistic traditions in a wider cultural context.

The exhibition takes on added significance at a time when globalisation has brought cultures closer while also raising concerns about the gradual loss of traditional identities and artistic practices.

The idea of motherhood provides a way to examine these connections. Across cultures, the mother is not defined only by childbirth. She can represent protection, regeneration, wisdom, fertility, compassion and strength.

The exhibition is designed in a basilica-like form combined with elements of the gajaprustha tradition, providing a distinctive backdrop for works from European and Indian traditions. The exhibition material has also been translated into Hindi and Kannada to make it accessible to a wider audience.

“One Mother, Many Mother Tongues represents an important milestone in the cultural dialogue between Italy and India as we look ahead to the India-Italy Year of Culture and Tourism in 2027,” said Giandomenico Milano, Consul General of Italy in Bengaluru.

“This exhibition celebrates the deep and diverse connections between our two civilisations, demonstrating how art can reveal both our shared humanity and the richness of our individual traditions,” he said.

Milano said Bengaluru was central to Italy’s engagement with India, particularly because of its technology and innovation ecosystem. With around 100 Italian companies having a presence in the city, he said the exhibition was also an effort to strengthen the relationship through the cultural sphere.

“We are particularly honoured to bring a masterpiece by Sandro Botticelli to India for the first time, following its presentation in Delhi. We hope that One Mother, Many Mother Tongues will welcome visitors not only from Karnataka but from across South India, inspiring audiences to discover new connections between cultures, histories, and artistic traditions,” he said.

When asked about the theme, Ahuja said it comes from the universality of the concept of 'mother and child' in multiple cultures that had their own artworks over the centuries. "It is not propaganda," he said about the exhibition, but an encapsulation of diversity and maintaining pluralism.

"The reason to have it in a public space is to familiarise the Indian audience with the unfamiliar. In the past, when works of Rembrandt were shown, people asked who he was. Exhibitions, as such, bring such works to the public where things couldn't translate to the Indian audience. For instance, to understand why Botticelli would make 80 paintings of Madonna and the child in his lifetime, in Florence they believed in mother goddess worship. Meanwhile, in Protestantism, Mary was not considered divine, and this looks into the past, at how the cosmic Goddess, dressed in blood red, and veiled in cosmic blue, is looked at. The subliminally theatrical space is interspersed with masterpieces that have been neglected in India's provincial museums. The chance has come to display them after many years."

In an era of globalisation, he said, "We are nervous of losing our own culture, but this gives us the confidence to know that through history, culture has managed despite moving toward homogenisation."

The exhibition has 26 artworks from mediterrenian region and India. "The exhibition lets visitors interact with different concepts of mother and child, and also question the concept of motherhood, Dasamahavidya in the Yogini tradition births non-human babies who are concepts, knowledge systems, Vidya. The design principle of the exhibition is one of a Basilica and Gajaprishtra from the Matrika temple. On one end of the hall, there is the Madonna who has accepted that her child will be sacrificed; on the other, there is the idol of Chamunda, who will never let her child be attacked, and it comes from Bengal."

When asked about the choice of the painting, he said, some curators like a painting more, others like another. There is also the question of 'what can I practically do'. Just like India has double A classified objects that cannot leave our shores, so does Italy (about works of Botticelli).

On the Madonna painting, Ahuja says the blood red of the clothing shows the worldly presence, and is juxtaposed with the sky blue veil with cosmos on it (reflecting divinity). "The hands are parted so the baby can be released for the benefit of the world. She is crying. The baby looks into a distant future while holding onto the mother's breast, a melancholy in his eyes. The gargoyles on the pillars behind are the onlookers. And the cross behind the Madonna puts both the mother and the child on the cross. The painting speaks of loss and separation, and of many sacrifices too. This painting of the Madonna has the same face as in the more famous masterpieces of  Sandro Botticelli, Primavera and the Birth of Venus."

The exhibition is being presented by the Consulate General of Italy in Bengaluru in collaboration with NGMA Bengaluru and the Ministry of Culture, Government of India, with support from Prestige Group.