Martyrdom

Medium

Oil on canvas

Dimensions

24"H × 18"W

Year

2026

Based on “Pandora’s Desires to Open the Box”, this piece approaches the condemned female with a sense of compassion. As the story goes, Hope is retained after she manages to shut the “box”, who is embodied here as the woman in blue, holding the pithos—the accurate form of the container given to Epimetheus by Zeus. The story is famously told to describe Pandora as a silly woman who willfully does something catastrophically wrong; as is the story of Eve and the forbidden fruit. The origin of the pithos is however usually neglected at this time when blame must be administered. The story in this painting is one of female camaraderie and the preservation of Hope.