This exhibition aims to tell the history of how we love, from original sin to the liberation of the 20th century. This love story will take us through adoration, passion, gallantry, libertinism and, of course, romanticism. It shows how, starting from a stigmatization of the feminine, each era has successively liberated women, love, relationships, pleasure, and feeling, culminating in the invention of free love.
Illustrated through a collection of 250 artworks, spanning different techniques and civilizations, this history of love is by no means exhaustive, but rather emphasizes the author’s interpretation. Each of the seven chapters sheds light on a major turning point in the history of the romantic relationship. To help tell this story, punctuated with literary quotes and film clips, the exhibition will display masterpieces of ancient statuary, precious objects from the Middle Ages, paintings by Memling, Fragonard, and Delacroix, and sculptures by Canova, Rodin, and Claudel.
