On March 23 2026, Marina gave the Anna Jameson Lecture 2026 at the National Gallery.

Fifty years after the publication of Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (1976), Marina Warner revisited the figure of the mater dolorosa through the stories of the Massacre of the Innocents and the Flight into Egypt. Drawing on Anna Jameson’s pioneering writings on art and storytelling, she explored both biblical and apocryphal traditions and their visual expression in paintings in the National Gallery and beyond.

The lecture examined artists’ depictions of mothers struggling to protect their children amid violence and persecution, asking why scenes of bloodshed, tyranny and grief had inspired some of the most compelling images in Western art. It then considered what such works could mean in today’s visually saturated world: whether terrible beauty could still evoke pity, deepen understanding, or offer consolation. The lecture concluded with contemporary responses to these themes in the work of artists including Paula Rego, Kiki Smith, Marcelle Hanselaar, Ana Maria Pacheco and Jon Henry, whose art reimagined traditional images of suffering and refuge for the present day.

The lecture is now available to read here