Fertility in art

In Classical mythology, Gaia (to the Greeks) or Terra (to the Romans), the personification of Earth, is associated with female fertility.

It is believed that worshippers would push the pointed legs into the earth to erect a temporary shrine for the goddess.

It depicts Venus (Aphrodite) rising from the sea and wringing her wet hair after her birth, a pose inspired by an account of the original painting by Apelles.

In Christianity, white rabbits are considered to be symbols of rebirth and fertility and are seen on a wing of the high altar in Freiburg Minster, where they are playing at the feet of two pregnant women, Mary and Elizabeth.

In Jan van Eyck's Arnolfini portrait, a carving of St. Margaret of Antioch (patron saint of childbirth) appears in the center background of the painting.

[10] In Botticelli's Primavera, on one hand the Three Graces represented by nubile young women embody the sexual powers of springtime while opposite them Flora, the goddess of Spring is a symbol of motherhood and, by her distribution of the roses gathered in her skirt, believed to represent the good things of life.

[13] In The Bacchae, an ancient Greek tragedy written by Athenian playwright Euripides, Dionysus is mentioned as a male fertility god that represented a special kind of vitality that is sometimes referred to as the Life Force.

[14] When at the close of Possession: A Romance, a novel by A. S. Byatt, the two lovers Randolph Henry Ash and Christabel LaMotte finally unite in the midst of a great storm.