section_path: Culture/Arts
section_name: Arts
paragraph_text: Arts
  
  Images of pregnant women, especially small figurines, were made in traditional cultures in many places and periods, though it is rarely one of the most common types of image. These include ceramic figures from some Pre-Columbian cultures, and a few figures from most of the ancient Mediterranean cultures. Many of these seem to be connected with fertility. Identifying whether such figures are actually meant to show pregnancy is often a problem, as well as understanding their role in the culture concerned.
  
  Among the oldest surviving examples of the depiction of pregnancy are prehistoric figurines found across much of Eurasia and collectively known as Venus figurines. Some of these appear to be pregnant.
  
  Due to the important role of the Mother of God in Christianity, the Western visual arts have a long tradition of depictions of pregnancy, especially in the biblical scene of the Visitation, and devotional images called a Madonna del Parto.
  
  The unhappy scene usually called Diana and Callisto, showing the moment of discovery of Callisto 's forbidden pregnancy, is sometimes painted from the Renaissance onwards. Gradually, portraits of pregnant women began to appear, with a particular fashion for "pregnancy portraits" in elite portraiture of the years around 1600.
  
  Pregnancy, and especially pregnancy of unmarried women, is also an important motif in literature. Notable examples include Thomas Hardy 's 1891 novel Tess of the d'Urbervilles and Goethe's 1808 play Faust.