Representations of mother-child relationships in Adolf Fényes’ (1867–1945) paintings
Representations of mother-child relationships in Adolf Fényes’ (1867–1945) paintings

Summary/Abstract: In the Hungarian pedagogical literature only few studies deal with the pedagogical analysis of paintings whose theme is childhood, except for Béla Pukánszky’s (2001), Katalin Péter’s (1996) and Orsolya Endrődy-Nagy’s (2010, 2013) studies. In this study I make an attempt to follow these researchers’ approach as the subject of my article is the representation of mother-child relationships in Adolf Fényes’ (1867–1945) paintings. Myaim is to demonstrate the concept and perception of children in archaic peasant societies by highlighting main motifs, sentiments, attitudes, and ideas (Panofsky, 2011, pp. 254–257) in the paintings, presenting several aspects of everyday life (Goffman, 1999) for analysis. My conclusions verify the theory of “archaic love” (Bálint, 1941), the mother-child relationship as a sociobiological category (continuity theory – Pollock, 1998, pp. 176-210), the idea of a “protector, guardian mother,” and the perception of the “helpless child”.

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