A seminal masterpiece of European Symbolism. Inspired by Luigi Illica's poem Il Nirwana, the painting belongs to Segantini's moral series examining the sacred essence of motherhood and spiritual purification. In a bleak, frozen Alpine wasteland, a woman who rejected her maternal call is bound to the twisted bough of a withered tree as her child reaches out from the wood to nourish. Segantini presents her suffering as a purgatorial rite of passage toward cosmic reconciliation with nature.