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Among the most famous depictions is Gustav

Klimt’s The Kiss, the greatest masterpiece of the

Viennese Secession Created in perfect Art Nouveau

style, immersed in the refined, ethereal and dreamy

atmosphere of the Belle Époque.

Our gaze glides from the profile of his face to the lines Here, the kiss between a man and a woman, both with their
of the clasped arms, to the folds of the sheets, indulging a faces covered by a veil, becomes the echo of a missed
vortex that suggests the fulfillment of male desire. love, the silence of unspoken words, of denied glances, an
The dominance of the senses and passion, however, unrealized desire fueled by the unconscious, the cruelest
mixed with a tension toward Romantic and patriotic ideals, and most enduring form of love, since it is destined not to be
is found at the basis of Francesco Hayez’s The Kiss (1859). consummated in the everydayness of existence. With the veil
Commissioned from the artist by Count Alfonso Maria removed, that kiss would lose its strength and authenticity,
Visconti di Saliceto, it is an artwork that is indeed related to becoming a simulacrum of itself.
love, but conceals a political meaning. Identified by Giuseppe A kiss without depth, like the cinematic Kiss V (1964)
Mazzini as the leader of Risorgimento history painting, by Roy Lichtenstein, a Pop artist who made the language
Hayez conceals some elements of impending struggle in the and imagery of the comic book world his own. Two beautiful
melodramatic tone that dominates the composition, in the and perfect faces of a man and a woman, in close–up, are
dagger hidden in his pocket, and in the mysterious shadow locked in a macroscopic kiss seemingly full of passion, but
looming in the background. That intense kiss, permeated actually full of cliché. Are her tears of joy or sorrow? Is it the
with neoclassical reminiscences, is the prelude to a forced kiss of two people who are about to leave or who have just
separation, the manifesto of a love (for one’s woman and returned? It is a fake, simulated kiss that lends itself to any
one’s country) that is difficult, conflicted, but still possible, situation, a prophetic portent of many and too many screen–
unlike that in The Lovers (1928) by Surrealist René Magritte. filtered kisses in the age of social media.

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