Template:POTD/2018-07-09
The Punishment of Lust is an 1891 oil painting on canvas by the artist Giovanni Segantini. An early entry in a thematic series on cattive madri (bad mothers) produced between 1891 and 1896, it depicts women being punished for preferring a life of ease over a life of duty by being suspended in limbo among the barren landscape of the Alps. These women are suggested to have aborted or lost their children, and although the artist would have perceived this as a cardinal sin, there is a hint that they may be redeemed. The work was purchased by the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, England, in 1893; it remains there today.Painting: Giovanni Segantini