The Kiss 1859

Francesco Hayez (1791-1882) was one of the leading artists of Italian Romanticism. Born in Venice into a relatively poor family of French and Italian parentage, he was apprenticed to an art restorer. Unfortunately, much of Hayez's career is difficult to assess, since he often neither signed nor dated his works. Hayez was the key figure in the transition from Neoclassicism to Romanticism in Italy, although his form of Romanticism is more apparent in his subject matter than in his technique. Remarkable in its intense clarity of light, The Kiss depicts a genteel young couple engaged in a charged, passionate encounter. The man and woman embrace as if they are stealing a forbidden kiss in a forbidden place; the woman's hand is electrified with passion, the man's hand soft on her face. The lyrical shadow to their right draws our eyes to the length of her sensuous, draping, intricately rendered silk skirt. The Kiss, which has become a famous symbol of Italian Romanticism, is shadowed with an air of hazy nostalgia and tender melancholy. The painting demonstrates Hayez's ordered, Neoclassical composition and refined, narrative style.