Authority figures Symbolism
Authority figures in art signal structures of power, discipline, and hierarchy that shape behavior. Across art history, teachers, leaders, and institutional settings stand in for the systems that train, reward, and restrain bodies.
Authority figures in The Ballet Rehearsal
In The Ballet Rehearsal (c. 1874) by Edgar Degas, authority is felt rather than personified. The practice room becomes a regime of training: dancers cluster between poised effort and weary waiting, the scuffed floorboards attest to repetitive drills, and a dark spiral staircase slices the space, reinforcing division and controlled circulation. By staging discipline and desire in tension, the painting shows how hierarchical supervision structures time, space, and bodies in the studio.
