Gradiva’s posture was significant for Freud. For Freud, her poise represented the variegated positions of the analyst’s work.

She looks down, in introspection.

She is silent.

And yet her gesture is energetic and active, for she lifts her draped tunic to reveal her feet.

For Freud, the fact that her center of gravity is shifted towards the front signifies that she is leaving the scene with only a trace of her feet impressed on the ground.

This elusive trace, says Freud, is where the analytic work begins.