Arguably love has been the inspiration for more great art than any other human emotion. Nevertheless it presents a challenge to the visual artist. How do you depict love? How do you convey its complexity and intensity?
Comprising works of art from the 15th century to the present day, this exhibition explored how artists have represented this most powerful of emotions.
Encompassing divine and mortal love, chaste and unchaste love, family love and charity, it demonstrated how artists including Raphael, Cranach, Vermeer, Holman Hunt, Marc Chagall, Tracey Emin and Marc Quinn have described or responded to love in all its complexities, across the centuries and in a variety of styles.
'Love' was the seventh in a series of exhibitions organised in partnership with Bristol’s Museums, Galleries & Archives Service and Tyne & Wear Museums.
The National Gallery Touring Partnership (2006–2008) is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Northern Rock Foundation, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and in London by the Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation.