Goddess of Love and Beauty: Renée Stout’s Erzulie Dreams

← v11n1, Spring 2012

Renée Stout’s concept for this work derives from Erzulie, the Haitian goddess of love, procreation, and motherhood, who shares traits with Oshun, the Yoruba orisa (deity) of love, beauty, and wealth. The goddess has different manifestations, and here, as Erzulie Freda, she also appears as a divinity of dreams. Stout transforms the figure into a self-image by placing a cast of her own head and face on the alluring torso with its delicate feathers, beads, and lace. Her softly closed eyes transport us to a world of seductive visions.

Erzulie rises from a small cabinet. Does this form an altar? The drawer opens, revealing a red beaded heart; the doors open, revealing a pelvis. This inner core—the locus of fertility, childbearing, and loving emotion—are these powers revealed to those who dream of her?

In Africa’s richly artistic Congo region, sculptures are often made to serve as containers for mystical ingredients that identify and activate powers relevant to the spirit, deity, or ancestor represented. Such sculptures are called minkisi (singular— nkisi ). They serve as altars where contact with spirits take place and as instruments of divination in processes that help a person, family, or community understand the issues that confront them, the better to overcome obstacles, meet needs, or fulfill desires. Like them, Erzulie contains forces within, as revealed by the elements inside the open drawer and doors.

The art of Congo’s Luba people has been described as a hymn to womanhood, and Stout’s Erzulie Dreams relates in its essence two Luba female figures in the museum’s collection. In one of these “cousins” of Erzulie, a seated woman holds a bowl. Whether it is a bowl of divination implements—women are often diviners—or white clay to rub on the body for rituals, the nurturing role of woman is unmistakably affirmed. The other sculpture, a royal stool, depicts a woman holding aloft the seat for a chief. From her position, planted on the earth, she visually and physically provides the essential link between the ancestors beneath the earth and the living ruler who sits upon the stool.

art spirituality gender

Richard B. Woodward

Richard Woodward is the curator of African art at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. He joined the staff of the museum in 1975 and in 1977 became the founding curator of VMFA’s African collection, which now includes more than 900 works representing 2000 years of art in Africa. He has also held senior administrative positions at the museum since the 1980s, serving as Interim Director in 2000 and as Senior Deputy Director for Architecture and Design from 2001 to 2010 while overseeing the planning and construction of the museum’s recent expansion. Woodward received his BA at Rutgers University and his MA in art history at the University of Virginia. Photo by Travis Fullerton