Above my messy writer’s desk overflowing with research materials, I hung three works of art that helped inspire my historical family saga with strong romantic elements. Let’s take a closer look.
Frank Dicksee’s The Confession (1896), a Victorian problem picture with multiple possible meanings. Is the man the woman’s husband or her priest? Which one of them is confessing, and what is (s)he confessing? Maybe this isn’t a couple at all…or maybe the priest is her lover. 😉
(Image links to its source, Gallerix)
Titian’s Noli Me Tangere (circa 1514). If you’ve read Necessary Sins, you know a copy of this painting hangs in René Lazare’s office. This image captures a moment from the Gospel of John (20:17) in which Jesus appears to Mary Magdalene after His resurrection. She reaches for Him, and Jesus responds “Do not touch me,” or “Noli me tangere” in Latin.
This meeting is a popular subject in Christian art. What I like about Titian’s version is the frisson of intimacy between the couple. Some people believe Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married. I couldn’t have a character as unconventional as René or as dogmatic as his son Joseph and not raise the possibility.
(Image links to its source, The National Gallery UK)
Last but probably my favorite artistically: Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson’s The Entombment of Atala (1808), based on an 1801 novella by François-René de Chateaubriand. I adore these French names too!
Chateaubriand’s novella takes place in 17th-century Louisiana. Despite her fair features in the painting, Atala’s father is a Christian Spaniard and her mother is a Christian Indian. Chactas is an Indian from an enemy tribe and a “pagan.” Atala and Chactas fall in love, but she promised her dying mother that she would remain a virgin and a Christian. Unable to reconcile her religious and earthly passions, Atala kills herself. In this scene, Chactas and his friend Father Aubry lower Atala into her grave.
An earlier scene in Atala makes an appearance in Necessary Sins as depicted on a gilded clock. In this painting, I love Girodet’s use of light, color, and body language. I can feel Chactas’s grief.
(Image links to its source, Wikimedia Commons)
These paintings all share a common theme that features in my own fiction: tragic love. I do enjoy a good romance novel with a guaranteed HEA (Happily Ever After). But tragic and bittersweet love stories stick with me even more. When characters endure purgatory and earn their earthly heaven, it’s so satisfying. And when the couple doesn’t achieve a happy ending, I still find the “might have been” delicious. For a few precious days/years/chapters, the characters found joy together and they were not alone.
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