A Foal's Birth

Bronze or resin, 56" x 33" x 21," edition 1 of 9

Bronze sculpture of a donkey foal, with the afterbirth sac draped over its head and body.

Bronze sculpture of a donkey foal, with the afterbirth sac draped over its head and body. Front view

Bronze sculpture of a donkey foal, with the afterbirth sac draped over its head and body. Torso close-up

Bronze sculpture of a donkey foal, with the afterbirth sac draped over its head and body. Head close-up

Bronze sculpture of a donkey foal, with the afterbirth sac draped over its head and body. Left view

Bronze sculpture of a donkey foal, with the afterbirth sac draped over its head and body. Rear view

Recovery from cancer surgery and a call for entry to a sculpture exhibition titled A Blessing of Animals brought to mind images of an event I had witnessed years before: the birth of a baby donkey. Motivated by the promise of my own renewal, I felt compelled to recreate what I had seen, in clay.

A mother donkey and her foal in a field. The baby is draped in its afterbirth sac.

The strange and poetic scene of a foal still partially wrapped in its afterbirth sac offered me rich design possibilities and thematic material. The qualities of the sac, like sheer drapery, led me to develop contrasting elements which, to my thinking, convey the idea of passage into the physical world: a smooth film next to wet, thick fur; a veiled eye opposite a wide open eye; tightly bound rear legs behind wobbly, free forelegs. The foal's fragile body and veil seemed angelic, not fully corporeal, not yet fully of the earth.

STEPHEN SAXENIAN

SCULPTOR

A Foal's Birth