Amore Vole Fe

The Metropolitan Museum of Art opened its “Art and Love in Renaissance Italy” exhibit just yesterday and it aims to present the different ranges of love shown through Renaissance arts. The exhibition explored different views and aspects of love through various objects, all chosen carefully to celebrate love and marriage. The items on show ranged from decorative vases, plates and jewelry and marriage portraits and paintings of passion and fertility. Among other things you’ll find there are splendid gifts presented to then-couples, the earliest dated wedding ring and even some rather sensual paintings of “profane love”. On the bare dark red painted walls were simple phrases and lines that seemed to have been pulled straight out of a love sonnet: “Amore Vole Fe” (Love needs Trust) and “I give you my finger/give me the ring”. Each section was dedicated to the key moments of every Renaissance Italians’ life: Betrothal, Marriage and the coming of children. Several paintings also delve into love lives of mythical heroes and gods such as with Aphrodite, Ares and Cupid. It’s definitely interesting to see the rich complexity and often ambiguity of meaning of love and marriage because all the paintings, trinkets and glassware on display present a different side or interpretation of this subject