Medea

Stuck's 'Medea', painted around 1896, engages one of classical tragedy's most terrifying figures: the sorceress who kills her own children to punish her faithless husband Jason. The subject was a touchstone of nineteenth-century academic and Symbolist painting — Delacroix, Feuerbach, and Gustave Moreau all painted Medea, establishing a rich tradition Stuck would have known. The particular horror of Medea — that her murderous act is simultaneously an expression of absolute maternal love and absolute maternal rage — made her an ideal vehicle for the Symbolist preoccupation with dangerous female psychology. Stuck's version from around 1896 places it in his most productive Symbolist period, when he was at work on his Sin, Sensuality, and related mythological femmes fatales. Medea adds a classical tragic dimension to that gallery of dangerous women, her story carrying the weight of Euripides' devastating analysis of passion, power, and revenge.

Medea compositions face the challenge of depicting a moment of extreme psychological tension without requiring the viewer to witness the act itself. Stuck likely shows Medea in the moment of decision or immediately before — knife or potion in hand, face expressing the terrifying calm of resolved.