The iconography in this piece is found in the small details of the characters in the painting. It is used to help tell a story of what is going on in the scene. The most prominent one is the use of the color Red. Red is found on the jacket of a man, who is leaning on his hand talking to a woman. The red is also found on the shawl of the woman, who is leaning on the side, looking distressed. The red is symbolic of passion and seems to suggest that she is a fallen woman who had been wooed by that man in particular. This agrees with the iconography of the single glove on the floor. The glove appears to be a woman’s glove, and the fact that it is left on the floor has an iconographic meaning of the woman exposing herself, allowing herself to be used, and then abandoned as the man who had wooed her is flirting with someone else. The title of this piece, Wounded Feelings, is the key to the general meaning of the piece, and allows the viewer to establish this connection with the iconographical meaning. A final iconographical element is the face of disdain on the woman on the far right of the piece. She is ‘looking down her nose’ at the man who is flirting with the other woman. That woman can be seen to be ichnographically linked to what general society thinks of that man and his actions toward women. She seems to know and expect the trouble that he causes, and her face reacts accordingly towards the actions that she, representing general society, finds inappropriate and despicable. All of these iconographical symbols support the title, that the gentleman in red had used and abandoned her, and is now actively flirting with another woman who will most likely meet the same fate.
Women in Art History 