Madonna

Edvard Munch took an experimental approach to his printmaking. The first stage of lithography involves drawing the design directly onto a smooth slab of limestone, using an oil-based crayon. Unusually, Munch would hoist the heavy stone onto his easel, so that he could draw freely onto its surface as if it were canvas or paper. Munch worked with printmakers in Berlin to rework this sexualised Madonna more than 100 times in different variations. The decorative border shows swimming sperm and a foetus to symbolise conception and pregnancy (clearly blasphemous in the context of the Madonna, or Virgin Mary).

Credit: Private Collection on long term loan to the National Galleries of Scotland