NARRATOR: Here, German painter Franz von Stuck expresses the physical and psychological terrors of hell. Look at the woman at the left—her wide, staring eyes convey her horror at the knowledge that she is trapped here forever. Curator Alison Hokanson:

ALISON HOKANSON: You can see that there are two women flanking the scene on either side, with the men in the middle. Stuck has really defined hell in terms of the relationship between the sexes.

NARRATOR: At right, the woman entwined with a snake brings to mind Eve, whom a serpent lured to give in to temptation and commit the first sin.

HOKANSON: With this reference to the Biblical Eve, I think he’s suggesting that sexuality, temptation, desire, are really at the root of human experience.

NARRATOR: Stuck’s subject matter wasn’t new, but his style was modern, even shocking. The bright red flames and blue snake stand out against the muted, yellow-green-tinted figures. When Stuck exhibited this painting for the first time—right here at the Met, in 1909—one critic described his color as “most abominable.”

HOKANSON: In addition, he’s really stylized the contours of the figures and exaggerated their poses in an expressive manner, in order to communicate the depth of their despair and of their pain.

NARRATOR: Contemporary critics were disturbed by the painting, but also impressed.

HOKANSON: They acknowledged how powerful the picture was. Although the brutality of the picture made them very uncomfortable, it was a work that lodged in their memories.