The image of love and romance is very common within art and has been for many centuries, right back to the rise of the Renaissance across Italy and then the rest of Europe. Art has always been about emotion and there is no stronger emotion than love, making it an ideal subject for any painting or drawing. This powerful emotion can have negative and positive impacts on everyone's lives and as such the images and paintings created from it depict a wide range in scenes which cover for example happy couples or the loneliness of someone after a relationship breakup.
The importance of love and romance has not changed in society for hundreds of years but the way in which it has been depicted in art has. Previously, traditional art meant that paintings would be highly decorative and complex pieces which marked the renaissance and baroque periods before newer art movements came about such as the Pre-Raphaelites, where artists were encouraged to centre in on a central figure which would normally be a glamorous woman sat by herself. JW Waterhouse was loosely connected to this art movement and he created paintings such as Tristan and Isolde.
Within the modern era art movements have become far more abstract and people's choices for images and pictures of love have changed considerably, with many going for simple digital ones that get their messages across in a very unsubtle way that fits into the much faster pace of society in general. E-cards have to a certain degree taken on traditional cards as a way of getting across romantic messages to a loved one but it is highly unlikely that they will ever actually replace them because printed cards suggest more of an effort has been made and this is important when receiving any romantic messages.
We can comfortably conclude that art and love have been close partners for many centuries, with artists tapping into the power of this emotion to produce impressive and memorable paintings that have also been greatly appreciated by the art mainstream public because of their own interest in this passionate emotion. The media continue to underline the importance of love to one's personal happiness and as such so much of people's behaviour in spent in and around finding or enjoying romance in various ways. People will go to extraordinary lengths in order to achieve the important feeling of love and so it is also highly appreciated from it's inclusion with in art.
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