Sunday, 4 October 2015

An Allegory of Love @ National Gallery

A fruitful afternoon visiting National Gallery today. Now that I have more time for hobbies, plus that I live 10 minutes' walking distance away from it, I plan to visit it more often. Today I focused on a few paintings and would like to share my thought on the painting called An Allegory of Love here. (NB: For Chinese readers who find some of the vocabulary a bit challenging, please click the hyperlink of the words or phrases).

 
An Allegory of Love


brief painting description
 An Allegory of Love, an extremely daring painting at that time (1527-39). It's probably controversial to paint a naked body itself already, not to mention adding details of touching nipples.

In the painting description, it says one couple looking deep into each other's eyes, however, from the painting, it seems that both couples do. The subtle difference is that the expression in the eyes of carnal love couple seems more playful and seductive, while the meditative love couple's seems more sentimental and spiritual.


Close-up of Carnal Love

Close-up of more meditative love

Cupid

Cupid, originally meaning "desire", is now taken as the God of erotic love and attraction. In the description it says "identified by his bow and wings, watches over two pairs of lovers". From his eyes and the gesture of avoiding looking at the lovers, it seems that he is a bit shy, and possibly bored and annoyed, lol. He's probably thinking: you guys are having fun, what am I doing here? Regarding his appearance, I understand the blonde curly hair is usually associated with physical beauty, but I wonder why his legs are so chubby, lol.

As for the animals on the tree in the background of the painting, the lizard and the goat, their symbolic meaning varies according to different sources. Mostly lizard is associated with good luck and clairvoyance, and the goat with fertility, vitality and ceaseless energy. These symbols imply fortune, reproduction and the circle of life. The painting is probably expressing the the contrast of the two different types of love at the front stage, while at the back stage it is probably saying that both types are needed for the continuity of life, or the outcome-oriented view, which reminds me of Deng Xiao Ping's famous saying: black or white, as long as it catches miceIf you catch a mouse, then you are  a good cat; If you contribute to the continuity of life, then your love is good love. Shall I say: carnal or meditative, as long as it's conducive?

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Learn English in context with Global Traveler
  1. Allegory 
  2. daring
  3. controversial
  4. nipples 
  5. carnal
  6. playful
  7. seductive
  8. meditative
  9. sentimental
  10. spiritual
  11. Cupid
  12. erotic
  13. identified by  
  14. gesture 
  15. avoiding
  16. shy
  17. bored
  18. annoyed 
  19. associated with 
  20. chubby
  21. clairvoyance
  22. fertility 
  23. vitality 
  24. ceaseless
  25. conducive  
  26. looking deep into each other's eyes: 深情凝望


Vocabulary illustrated with pictures 看图学词





Bow and Arrow
Wings







 


Blonde curly hair








Mice
Goat


Lizard               





5 comments:

  1. Very nicely done great interpretation

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Carmen for visiting me online. I really appreciate your kind words :)

      Delete
  2. Is this your blog? Such a great idea to document life and help others to learn English!! Looking forward to reading more posts from you!
    Tina

    ReplyDelete
  3. I have read the two articles on your blog and I really like the write you write and tell the story!
    Rico

    ReplyDelete
  4. Especially when you commented the paintings! Adding English learning to the end is an interesting idea :) Rico

    ReplyDelete

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