This oil painting depicts an exterior window shutter, known in Italian as a "gelosia", a word that also translates to "jealousy." Historically, particularly in Mediterranean regions of Italy, these shutters served to safeguard the privacy of women, allowing them to observe the outside world unseen—a response, perhaps, to the jealousy of their husbands. The painting's bold strokes emphasize this connection between the object and the complex emotion it represents by its name.