About Staging Law in late 19th-Century Painting. Stairs as Platforms for Sex-Based Glorification and Condemnation

Abstract

The article begins by analysing two paintings by Francesco Hayez and Jean-Léon Gérôme, which pursue a national political interest and show women in a supporting role only. In paintings addressing socio-political themes, however, the depiction of women was much more differentiated. Particular attention is paid to an early work by Giovanni Segantini. In its first version, it shows a young, unmarried pregnant woman who has been refused absolution after confession, a scene which the work’s second version replaces with an old priest going to morning mass. The history of the creation and interpretation of both versions is presented as well as the staircase paintings that Segantini had become familiar with in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan and thus might have inspired his first version: in addition to the painting by Hayez, these include in particular those by Raffaello Sanzi and Federico Zandomeneghi. The article demonstrates that Segantini’s criticism of the Catholic church continues in the second version although disguised, and relates this criticism to the development of family law.