Erzulie Dantor

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For viewers outside of the Vodou community, it is quite likely that Myrlande Constant’s Erzulie Dantor will at first glance appear to be a Catholic depiction of the Virgin Mary and the infant Jesus. However, the figures’ darker skin hints at a difference. The flag in fact portrays the titular Vodou lwa Erzulie Dantor holding her son, Ti Jean Petwo. This mixture of imagery and meaning exemplifies the syncretism of Vodou—its combination of Catholic and African religions. Erzulie Dantor is a significant figure in the Vodou pantheon, as the mother of the Petwo nanchon (nation) of hot-tempered spirits (who contrast with the cooler and gentler Radha family of spirits represented in Constant’s Sosyete Radha, already in the Akron Art Museum’s collection). In this light, she is known as the spirit of love, motherhood, and single mothers in particular, with intense emotions of passion, jealousy, and revenge coloring her connection to these topics. The realization of this imagery also displays Constant’s highly refined technical abilities, with the mixture of differently sized beads in the figures’ crowns and halos providing particularly textured and virtuosic passages. The background, while plain as far as imagery and symbolism, also provides an occasion for the skillful application of materials, as its golden beads are arranged in sweeping waves.