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There
is the pleasure of giving, and the quite different pleasure of
receiving, a gift. The savoir-faire that goes into
selecting the proper gift is a subtle art. And there's the
pleasure of watching the delight of the person unwrapping what one
has chosen…love tokens, birthday presents, Christmas gifts,
Valentine's Day's surprises…. Gifts have also played an
important role throughout history in the world of diplomacy, as an
expression of culture or perhaps an opening salvo in the chess
game of international relations. And then there is the gift
of love - one could argue that true love is perhaps the only time
exchange or trade is quite equal in the spectrum of human
relations between two people. The
tradition of giving gifts on wedding anniversaries has been
ritualized in contemporary society, with different materials
expressing different years: paper, aluminum, silver, gold.
The link between gift-giving, love, and marriage is explored in
the Metropolitan Museum's exhibition Art and Love in
Renaissance Italy. The show presents over one hundred
and fifty objects which date from the early fifteenth to the
mid-sixteenth century. Many of these objects were given as
wedding gifts, usually by members of the Italian haute
bourgeoisie and aristocracy. Refined maiolica and
jewelry, lovely glassware, birth trays, drawings, and even large
oil paintings are among the objects on display. A
fascinating aside: until the edicts of the Council of Trent
systematized the institution of marriage in 1563, church or
governmental approval was unnecessary and only the mutual consent
of the lovers was required to wed. Cupid,
that most capricious of matchmakers, is playfully depicted in a 20
by 67-inch tempera titled Venus Reclining on Pillows (1440-1445),
painted on the inner lid of a cassone or wedding chest by the
Florentine artist Paolo di Stefano Badaloni (Paolo Schiavo).
A tiny Cupid with dark red wings pulls on a cloth cord held in the
hand of a Rubenesque beauty reclining naked on cushions. (Cassoni
were traditionally offered by the bride's family during a wedding
for her to store her wedding gifts and prized possessions.)
Marriage is depicted as an expression of true love in some of the
objects, while in other works such as Fra Filippo Lippi's Portrait
of a Woman and a Man at a Casement (ca. 1440-44), the opposite
is implied. Here the lovers' eyes look past each other and
their faces lack emotion, signifying that perhaps their union has
been arranged. The woman's cuff is inscribed with the
Italian word for loyalty, lealtà. A covert romantic
statement perhaps, an insinuation that without love marriage can
be a tomb; this is after all Fra Filippo Lippi - the
painter monk who perhaps knew something about passion - the same
monk who is immortalized in Robert Browning's Fra Lippo Lippi:
"Take away love, and our earth is a tomb!"
See:
Art
and Love in Renaissance Italy
Tags:
jewelry
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