“And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye.” It is this small grain of truth that Antoine de Saint-Exupéry shares in Le Petit Prince. We seek out the perfect duality in our partner, and we are so blinded by our expectations that we lose sight of what is truly important. Love is not about fulfilling our own selfish desires or forcing someone to conform to our demands.
We are complete beings that make up shortcomings to justify our attachments. We pour our needs and happiness into the hands of the other, and inevitably these are dropped. Suffering, frustration, and disappointment come about when our expectations on the other are not fulfilled.
Each mind is a world of its own, and we are all equally different in our capacity to love and find happiness. Love is not proud, and it is not self-seeking. It always hopes and perseveres; it is an endless source of power and pure pleasure that makes you jump into the abyss, safe in the arms of the other.
This vision colors our perception in art, and we mistakenly believe these paintings are surrounded by the selfless halo of love, when it is, in fact, the opposite.
The Bride of the Wind – Oskar Kokoschka
Far from representing a passionate romance, these two lovers speak of a tragic love that is swept away by the wind. Kokoschka paints a couple that is joined together through sex, which is not synonymous of love. On the contrary, their faces are etched with anguish because they know their romance has been erased by the tempest.
Their eyes don’t lock together, since their union is physical and not emotional.
Susanna and the Elders – Tintoretto
It is one of the most famous paintings by Tintoretto, and it is a Greek version of the Book of Daniel. It is the story of a beautiful woman who is spied on by two old men. They force her to have sex, by threatening to divulge that she is meeting her lover behind her husband’s back.
The painting shows Susanna sitting on the edge of a small pool, preparing to take a bath. She is watched by two elderly men who are hidden behind a rose trellis in her garden. It is more of a lascivious painting than of poetic love.
Leda and the Swan – Michelangelo
Swans are graceful creatures, and in this painting we see this animal accompanied by a naked woman. The painting is based on the Greek myth in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces Leda. Zeus’s capacity to take the shape of any living creature allowed him to seduce any woman he desired. Leda bore Helen and Pollux, children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband, the King of Sparta. In other versions she laid two eggs from which the children hatched.
The Happy Accidents of the Swing- Jean Honoré Fregonard
The flowers, colors, and expressions make it one of the most important masterpieces of the rococo period, and it is highly romantic.
The painting shows a young lover hidden in the bushes, watching a woman on a swing, being pushed by another man —most likely her husband—, who is unaware of the other lover. Fragonard, under the beautiful symbolism of flowers and colors, reveals a world of adultery and sin. The aristocracy he portrays revolves around money, for love is easily bought.
Salome – Lévy Dhurmer
What appears to be a portrait of an innocent kiss, is in fact a morbid kiss that Salome gives to the decapitated head of John the Baptist. She demands the head of John on a silver platter as a boon she obtains from Herod.
The Kiss – Gustav Klimt
This painting has become the epitome of true love, as we see two lovers sharing a tender kiss. Klimt, however, was portraying the last kiss between Daphne and Apollo before she is transformed into a laurel tree.
The process of transformation that Daphne experiences forces Apollo to take her into his arms and stop the earth from consuming her. Daphne, defeated and heartbroken, kneels to the ground as if surrendering to her fate. This is why we see her feet being covered by roots that are rising from the ground.
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If you thought these paintings embodied love, now you see that they portray desire, lasciviousness, and heartbreak. Each brushstroke and etching speak of uncontrollable desire and the surrender of the other.
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If you are interested in art, check out these articles:
Paintings That Show What It Feels Like To Live With Depression
51 Paintings You Must Know if You Want To Be Called An Art Expert
