Love and art are always in constant contact, it brings artists a steady stream of inspiration and passion, the appeal of the work through time and space, let us also see what the artist's love is like.
Valentine's Day is one of the traditional festivals in the West, and its origins are diverse, the most widely circulated legend comes from the 3rd century AD, when the Roman Emperor Claudius II announced the abandonment of all marriage commitments in the capital Rome, which was out of war considerations, so that more men who had no worries could go to war. A priest named Sanctus Valentinus did not follow this will and continued to hold church weddings for young people in love. After the incident was initiated, Father Valentin was first whipped, then stoned, and finally sent to a gallows and hanged on February 14, 270 AD. After the 14th century, people began to commemorate this day. Now, Chinese translated as "Valentine's Day," it is known in Western countries as Valentine's Day, in honor of the priest who sacrificed himself for his lover.
Created in 1814, this work is an imaginary double portrait painted by the neoclassical master Ingres, entitled Raphael and Verna Reina, which arranges for a dark-eyed woman to sit on Raphael's lap, as if to evolve Raphael's painting into a popular popular image. Raphael never married, but he had an incomparable goddess in his heart, and that was his lover, Verna Rena. Verna Reina had always been mysterious in Raphael's life, she adored him, cared for him, loved him, and she often stood behind Raphael who was painting, silently watching him paint. She was the inspiration and source of Raphael's artistic creation. Rumors that Verna Reina was Raphael's lover probably began during the Renaissance and became a hot topic of public discourse in the 19th century.
"The Girl with the Pearl Earring" is the masterpiece of the Dutch Golden Age master Vermeer, Gretel is a poor girl, hired to come to the painter Vermeer's house as a maid. In the painter's home, Gretel is exposed to the wonderful world of painting for the first time, and these wonderful paintings awaken her potential artistic sensitivities. At the same time, Vermeer was also impressed by Gretel's artistic talent and beautiful temperament. Gretel became infatuated with Vermeer's artistic talent and was willing to give everything for him, and gradually Gretel became part of Vermeer's work. "The Girl with the Pearl Earrings" is the best testimony of the pure love between Vermeer and Gretel. It's just that the good life always passes so quickly, and in the end the painter and the girl fail to break through the obstacles, leaving a story of eternal sorrow and immortal masterpiece.
In the work "The Weeping Woman", the Spanish painter Picasso depicts the expression of a woman in a state of extreme sadness and intense inner pain with thick lines and hard brushstrokes. The depiction of a woman's distorted and fragmented face in the painting is a development of Picasso's Cubist ideas. "The Weeping Woman" is also the most moving one in Picasso's late deformed women's works. Some say that Picasso gave himself to the devil and the brush to God; and for this work he gave the pain to the woman, the woman, Dora Marr. Dora Mar was Picasso's lover, and she often cried uncontrollably.
The Oil Painting The Bride of the Wind is an oil on canvas painting by the painter Kokosika in 1914, now in the Kunsthaus Kunsthaus Basel. Kokoschka was an Austrian expressionist painter, poet and playwright who joined the Austrian army and was wounded during World War I, and doctors believed that his spirit had been damaged, but he still traveled extensively in Europe, painting landscapes. He fell in love with the musician and musician Gustav Mahler's ex-wife, Elma Mahler, and a few years later Elma abandoned her for fear of falling too deeply into her emotions, but he fell in love with Herma for the rest of his life, and his most famous work, The Bride of the Wind, was dedicated to her. In the work, Kokosika uses rough lines that are almost neurotic to show the fierce wind of the external environment, the hazy moonlight illuminates the blue mountains and canyons in the distance, and a pair of lovers sleep in this fierce wind, their passion fills the air, and the love surging in the heart seems to build a barrier to block the violent west wind. However, looking closely at the two characters in the picture, the "bride" is quietly asleep, and the "groom" is wide-eyed, as if he has a premonition that misfortune is coming. Amid the twisted lines and manic colors, it seems that the end of the pair of lovers will eventually part ways can be foreseen.
The painting "Swing" depicts a flashy aristocratic teenager hiding in the bushes peeking at the young lady swinging the swing: when one of the high heels on the swing accidentally falls off and throws out, the prodigal boy is ready to reach out to pick it up. Although the painting is very meticulous, for example, the garden scenery and the trees are beautifully painted, the style of the painting is somewhat vulgar. This painting represents the artistic taste of the aristocracy of the time. Flirting as the content has a certain advantage in all of Fragonard's works, and in terms of content and form, it is even worse than his teacher Boucher. In the paintings ordered for the dignitaries, the fragrant atmosphere is very explicit, and the frivolous content and superb color skills are a kind of painting "tradition" that Fragonard inherited from Boucher's "courtesy to women".
The artist's love story is still talked about today, and these emotions give the soul of the work. Valentine's Day is only a scene and a portrait in Western paintings, but it records the real experience of the artist, or a memory of the times, so that we can use our vision to feel the charm of art.