The Sphinx (The evasive woman)

Painted in 1887, The Sphinx (The Evasive Woman) dates to the early years of Pellizza da Volpedo's artistic development, before he fully committed to Divisionism and socialist subject matter. The sphinx as a cultural symbol in the late nineteenth century was associated with the femme fatale trope common in Symbolist and Decadent art — a mysterious, intellectually and sexually dangerous woman who defeats or destroys men who cannot solve her riddle. Volpedo's use of the subtitle 'the evasive woman' suggests a psychological rather than mythological reading, rooted in the tensions of bourgeois gender relations in late nineteenth-century Italy. This early work shows Volpedo engaging the cultural currents of European Symbolism before developing the distinctive social realist direction that would make his reputation. It is a valuable document of his formative concerns before the political commitments of his mature painting took hold.

The 1887 date precedes Volpedo's Divisionist period, and the technique likely reflects the more conventional Italian academic realism of his early training. The figure's rendering would emphasize surface beauty combined with psychological ambiguity. The composition may position the woman in a direct gaze that creates confrontational visual tension with the viewer.