February 14, 1:49 pm Photo
Valentine's Day: kisses, passion and love in art
Klimt, Hayez, Haring but also Pompeii and Egypt
© ANSA
WATCH THE PHOTOSTORY Photo
Close
The kiss by Gustav Klimt, an icon of Art Nouveau
Close
The kiss by Francesco Hayez, manifesto of Italian romanticism
Close
the sculptural group Cupid and Psyche by Antonio Canova
Close
Above the city of Marc Chagall, hymn to love and hope
Close
Ettore e Andromaca by Giorgio De Chirico, bronze work in the Mab of Cosenza
Close
Adam and Eve, painted in 1932 by Tamara De Lempicka
Close
The Lovers, work by the surrealist Ren Magritte, exhibited at the Moma in New York
Close
Untitled by Keith Haring, famous drawing from 1988
Close
images of the erotic papyrus of ancient Egypt, preserved in the Egyptian museum in Turin
Close
frescoes with an erotic theme, recently found in the small Lupanare of Pompeii
MILAN - Lovers in flight and between the sheets, overwhelming kisses of passion but also made salty by tears. Love and sex in all its forms on a special Valentine's day trip in front of 10 unmissable paintings.
The kiss by Gustav Klimt
Icon of Art Nouveau, the work of the Austrian painter Gustav Klimt speaks of love, sensuality and romance. Made between 1907 and 1908, it is one of the most famous paintings of contemporary art, characterized by soft and sinuous shapes and golden colors that give elegance and grace to the protagonists while embracing in a sensual and overwhelming kiss. The oil on canvas is exhibited in the Österreichische Galerie Belvedere in Vienna.
Cupid and Psyche by Antonio Canova
Between 1788 and 1793 Antonio Canova created Amore e Psiche, a white marble sculpture, now preserved in the Louvre museum in Paris. The Venetian sculptor made three copies of the work, in each of which the two protagonists are portrayed in different poses. This sculptural group, which portrays one of the most lyrical moments of the novel The Donkey of Gold by Apuleius, is harmonious in the forms and figures, whose beauty makes them an ideal and ethereal love. The artist wanted to eternalize in marble the moment when Love awakened with a kiss the beloved from the deep sleep that the goddess Proserpina, deceiving her, had provided her.
Above the city of Marc Chagall
The two lovers, tenderly linked, fly over the city towards a new life: this is the message that the Belarusian artist Marc Chagall wanted to impress on the canvas, created in 1918 and now exhibited in the Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow. More than a painting, it is a poem full of hope that the avant-garde author, in the aftermath of the Russian revolution, turns his great love to the city Vitebsk and his wife Bella Rosenfeld. It is she who holds one arm in the painting, while together they fly in the sky of the city, swimming in the air and letting go of the wind of dreams.
The kiss by Francesco Hayez
The work of the Milanese painter Francesco Hayez is one of the posters of Italian pictorial romanticism. Painted in 1859 and kept in the Pinacoteca di Brera in Milan, it was made in three copies with different colors and tones of the protagonists' clothes. The kiss, before an alleged farewell, is full of passion and love; the departure of the man, highlighted by the foot on the step that suggests an imminent separation, further increases the pathos of the scene.
Hector and Andromache by Giorgio De Chirico
In the Bilotti open-air museum in Cosenza you can admire the work Ettore e Andromaca, which Giorgio De Chirico created in 1917. The bronze work, empty inside, tells the sad mythological story when Ettore greets Andromaca for the last time, before facing Achilles. The hero knows that he will lose his life, but nevertheless he is heading towards his destiny; the metaphysical painter portrays the two lovers as dummies in the hands of fate.
Untitled by Keith Haring
It is one of Keith Haring's most famous drawings, made in 1988 and exhibited in the Hamilton Selway Fine Art in Hollywood. The trait of the brilliant American painter and street writer, who died of AIDS at just 32 years of age, is unmistakable. Despite his untimely death, Haring's language entered the collective imagination of the twentieth century: his works are populated by stylized and two-dimensional characters and the use of bright colors recalls those of advertising graphics. In this drawing his personal idea of love shines through: two beings, whose sex cannot be identified, who dance on the notes of sentiment.
Adam and Eve by Tamara De Lempicka
Two naked bodies tight in an intense and possessive embrace: it is one of the ways of representing love for the Russian painter Tamara Rosalia Gurwik-Gorska, married Lempicka, who painted the picture in 1932. To the mighty muscles of Adam, the only naked male who has ever painted the artist, Eva's smooth and soft body contrasts. The work was purchased by singer and actress Barbra Streisand who in 1994 sold it to a private individual for more than two million dollars.
The Lovers of René Magritte
It is one of René Magritte's most famous surrealist works, exhibited at Moma in New York. Made in 1928, the painting depicts a couple covered by a veil that embraces and kisses and tells of the difficulty of expressing love and communicating it. The thoughts and the head, in fact, are covered by a veil.
Papyrus 55001
Papyrus number 55001 is kept in the Egyptian museum in Turin, a very fragile document that tells the story of eros in the times of the Ramses dynasty, in the year 1150 before Christ. Recently restored, the papyrus is divided into two parts: one, almost completely destroyed, has the main theme of satire while the second, more intact, is a kind of Kamasutra of the ancient Egyptians. The papyrus tells the life of an Egyptian woman - hair, clothes and makeup - and the way she made love, including positions, which turn out to be true sexual stunts.
Erotic frescoes by Lupanariello
Among the latest openings in the Pompeian archaeological area, thanks to the "great Pompeii project", there is the Lupanariello or small Lupanare, restored within a structure where prostitution was practiced. This is revealed by four erotic frescoes that decorate the room, the window of which had been walled up to ensure customer privacy. The house came to light in 1878 but the restoration and opening to the public dates back to just two months ago. The frescoes with an erotic theme are added to the well-known ones by Lupanare, the brothels of ancient Pompeii, and the Suburban baths, the public bathing establishments.
RESERVED REPRODUCTION © Copyright ANSA
- Code to be incorporated
Get the embed code
