The Seven Deadly Sins: Lust

Paul Cadmus

1945 · Egg tempera on Masonite · Modern and Contemporary Art

Between 1945 and 1949, Cadmus turned his dexterous hand and fertile imagination to rendering the Seven Deadly Sins, a subject with biblical antecedents that artists have explored since the Middle Ages, including Hieronymus Bosch and Pieter Bruegel the Elder. Cadmus’s interpretation extends his predilection for social satire to surreal extremes of excess, vulgarity, and gore. Of the series, Cadmus explained, "I don’t appear as myself, but I am all of the Deadly Sins in a way, as you all are, too."

Artist

Paul Cadmus

Date

1945

Medium

Egg tempera on Masonite

Department

Modern and Contemporary Art

Credit line

Gift of Lincoln Kirstein, 1993