Photo credit: Walker Art Gallery
From Adam and Eve to Tracey Emin, love and desire are a foundation of both life and art. Many Greek and Roman myths, historically the source of many paintings, are about love and desire, jealousy and lust. For example, Zeus, the king of the Greek gods, took many forms to seduce goddesses and mortals – as a swan, a bull and a shower of gold. Cupid, the Roman god of love, is found everywhere.
Western religions tried to contain erotic love within marriage – see Jan van Eyck's Arnolfini portrait – but art and literature treat the subject more openly. Seventeenth-century Dutch treatments of illicit domestic romance were followed by more decorous nineteenth-century versions: Haynes King's Jealousy and Flirtation is a typical example.
