Thursday 10th December - The Kiss

 Look! We've reached double figures, on the 10th day of Snogvent already! Time flies during December, it's very disconcerting.  No sooner has my daughter had her birthday on the 6th than we seem to be at Christmas's door with indecent haste.  One of the few redeeming features of this peculiar year is that I have had time to prepare for Christmas, making presents and sending out cards far earlier than I have managed before.  Every cloud, eh? Anyway, on with today's image...

The Kiss (1910) Silvio Allason

I know we are allowed to mix outdoors now but having a gate between you does not count as social distancing.  Not only that, it must be flipping painful.  I'd be worried about the metal in my corset suddenly getting magnetized and I'd be stuck there, pretending to be really interesting in some ironwork while desperately trying to reach my hat. The perils of love are many and various but getting snagged on some fancy railings should not be one of them.

Seascape (no date)

Silvio Allason (1843-1912) was an Italian artist of mainly sea- and landscapes. He's best known of his images of the alps, majestic and peaceful, which makes the scene of the fence-fondlers somewhat surprising.  It's a scene of dramatic romance - why do the couple have to kiss through a gate?  There are obviously obstacles in their way, unless they both have the same iron-related fetish (if so, best of luck to them and it's good they have each other, saves two other people etc etc).  

There seem very few clues as to why the couple cannot kiss without ironwork between them.  She is very finely dressed, so maybe her parents think that her lover is beneath her, yet he doesn't seem to be shoddy.  There is a definite feeling that she is a caged bird - maybe no man would ever be good enough for her parents?  I'm having a Barretts of Wimpole Street moment, with her father keeping her imprisoned at home, yet she still finds a way to meet a hot bloke to snog through the railings.  We can't see her left hand, so maybe she's already married.  Our lover-boy wears no wedding ring but her left hand is hidden. It's a bit of a novelty, conducting an affair through some fancy ironwork, but it takes all sorts.  

If you must conduct an affair at the moment, please do it safely and use protection by which I mean a rather lovely mask...

Possibly the most lovely mask I have seen (and bought instantly) has to be this one, based on the Millais painting The Bridesmaid, available from the Fitzwilliam Museum shop here.  It would be a very 2020 Christmas present indeed...

God bless the Fitzwilliam for this rather jolly image...

 Speaking of Christmas presents, don't forget that the lovely people at Unicorn are offering both my books for a tenner each and I'll sign them and everything.  Just use the code 'KIRSTY' on the Unicorn website.  See you tomorrow...