Illustration til "Svinedrengen" i H.C. Andersen, "Eventyr og Historier", Bind 1 1870 - 1873

H.P. Hansen rendered this illustration for Hans Christian Andersen’s "The Swineherd" using pen and ink. A kiss, seemingly innocent, becomes a transaction. The princess succumbs to the swineherd’s grubby lips for the sake of a musical toy, a degradation of royal purity. But consider the kiss itself, this point of contact. Its symbolism echoes through time, from the sacred osculum of religious rites, signifying spiritual union, to the treacherous kiss of Judas. Think too of the kiss that awakens Sleeping Beauty, a motif of redemption and rebirth. This act of puckering lips recurs, bearing connotations of betrayal and salvation, defilement and transformation. Here, the kiss is a motif pregnant with psychological tension, engaging us on a subconscious level. We are both repulsed by the princess’s fall from grace and morbidly fascinated by the swineherd’s triumph. And so the wheel turns. These symbols persist, constantly reappearing, yet changing. The kiss remains a potent emblem in our collective consciousness, a signifier shaped and reshaped across the epochs.