My favourite coffee mug carries the image of Gustav Klimt´s famous kiss. It occurred to me to find out how other artists might have dealt with this theme of people kissing – a search that could be very intriguing.
In any religious painting, not surprisingly, we will not find images of people kissing – except that of the Apostle Judas kissing Jesus. Against the payment of thirty silver coins Judas had promised to kiss Jesus to identify him for the Roman soldiers ready to arrest him. Giotto (1267/77 – 1337) places the two main figures in the centre of the image, with the soldiers carrying torches to indicate that night has fallen. Jesus is shown with a halo as are two of his disciples who try to protect him. Of course, no halo for Judas, the traitor. Christ looks benignly at Judas while the latter´s face expresses determination.
Kisses between two humans as a subject matter appears next only in the 19th century. During the many years after Giotto, there may be small scenes with lovers kissing as part of an overall story – but never do the lovers take centre stage before that. The Pre-Raphaelite painter Simeon Solomon (1840-1905) uses the myth of Sappho of Lesbos to portray tender love between two women. The two turtle doves in the background make it clear that this is more than affectionate friendship, should we for a moment have doubted it.
By contrast Egon Schiele´s portrayal of two lovers is brazenly sexual with no doubt in our minds that the couple hold one another with fervour.There is no tenderness here but raw desire. Some of his images seem to border on pornography but the rendering, as in this one, with lines vibrating with energy, is so powerful that we are mesmerized even if the subject matter might be off- putting.
Equally disturbing may be the bizarre manner in which Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) has approached the theme. He is dealing with love between spouses and has chosen an episode from the Trojan War. Andromache, daughter-in-law of the Trojan king, implores her husband, Hector, not to go and fight in the war. As a surrealist painter, Chirico poses the two against a dreamlike landscape with red structures on each side like a curtain making these two like characters on a stage. I find it difficult to relate to what is obviously a tragic moment – we know from the Iliad that Hector will be killed soon after. The reduction of the two figures into geometric patterns makes them look like puppets: only the way in which the two heads join in a kiss tells us that they are emotionally attached to each other. Does it touch our emotions? Not mine.
By far the most enigmatic interpretation comes from the surrealist painter René Magritte (1898-1967). We see a couple, the man quite formally dressed in suit and tie, but their heads are covered by a white cloth. They kiss through the barrier of the material and we are mystified. What is he trying to say, if anything?The message might be that we can never fully unveil the true nature of our intimate companions. Or else Magritte wants to confuse us as in so many of his absurd images.
How delightful by comparison is L´anniversaire by Marc Chagall (1887-1985). The Russian painter created this on his birthday, shortly before he left Paris to return to Belarus to marry his wife Bella. Bella is carrying a bouquet as if in honour of his birthday and they both are suspended in air as his figures are so often. It is a joyous image and in homage to his future wife. It is easy for us to imagine their upcoming wedding, with Bella carrying the wedding bouquet and he allowed to kiss her for the first time as his wife. A charming image and perhaps my favourite among this selection.
In Berlin, one piece of the former infamous Wall has been preserved and is covered by graffiti. One such graffitiis by a Russian painter, Dimitri Vrubel (1960-2022). It shows a kiss between the Soviet leader Leonid Breshnev and Erich Honecker, Chairman of the State Council of East Germany. The photo on which the picture here is based was taken in 1978 but the Graffiti appeared in 1990 after the fall of the Wall.It appears that among Socialist leaders a fraternal kiss on the lips was customary.The artist added the ironic caption (in Russian and German): “My God, help me to survive this deadly kiss”. Another Judas kiss?
