Portret van een onbekende vrouw die lijdt aan lepra c. 1860 - 1868

This photographic print by A. de Montméja captures an unsettling image: a woman afflicted with leprosy. The most striking element is her posture, hands clasped tightly in her lap. This gesture, though seemingly simple, resonates with a deep historical echo. Consider the countless images across time where clasped hands signify not just composure but also profound distress, supplication, or silent suffering. We see it in medieval depictions of saints enduring martyrdom and Renaissance portraits of penitent souls. Her posture is a symbol of containment, reflecting both physical confinement due to the disease and emotional constraint in the face of public stigma. This posture is also seen in the ‘melancholic’ pose, a figure withdrawn into themselves. It is a gesture that becomes a vessel for expressing personal anguish, and societal exclusion. This photograph makes us confront the cyclical nature of human suffering and the enduring power of visual symbols to evoke empathy.