Focus on this artwork and analyze the Painting.
Segantini painted The Punishment of Lust in 1891; it was an early entry in a thematic series on cattive madri (bad mothers) that he produced between 1891 and 1896 (the Nirvana cycle), also featuring The Bad Mothers. Taking its inspiration from Nirvana published in 1889 – supposedly a translation from the 12th-century Indian Panghiavahli of Maironpada by the librettist Luigi Illica but probably written by him or translated from an intermediate work – it shows women being punished for preferring a life of ease over a life of duty by being suspended among the barren landscape of the Alps.Segantini had been raised a Catholic and believed strongly that the role of a woman was to be a mother; the Nirvana cycle illustrates the outcome for women who failed in that role and contrasts with Segantini's Angel cycle, produced over the same period, that depicts the reward derived from being a good mother. Segantini's longing for the mother who had died when he was a child coupled with his resentment at losing her may be reflected in this dichotomous approach to the theme of motherhood.The women in The Punishment of Lust are suggested to have aborted or lost their children, and although this would have been a sin in Segantini's eyes, he has still treated them sympathetically and, as the poem Nirvana does, hints that they could be redeemed; they are suspended in a dream-like state and, though stark, the landscape is not unpleasant –  Segantini regarded the mountains as his spiritual home – and the inclusion of withered trees symbolises a possible return to life in a new spring.
The Bad Mothers aborted Panghiavahli of Maironpada Luigi Illica dichotomous sin role of a woman Alps