Eros (concept) by Sanja Nesic

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Eros (concept)
by Sanja Nesic

PHOTOGRAPHY

Sanja Nesic

– Photography –

Urban Book Circle® (UBC)

Sanja Nesic,
Serbian Italian photographer

Eros (concept)

The classical conception of love’s arrows was developed further by the troubadour poets of Provence during the medieval period, and became part of the European courtly love tradition. The role of a woman’s eyes in eliciting erotic desire was particularly emphasized by the Provençal poets, as N.E. Griffin points out:

According to this description, love originates upon the eyes of the lady when encountered by those of her future lover. The love thus generated is conveyed on bright beams of light from her eyes to his, through which it passes to take up its abode in his heart.

In some medieval texts, the gaze of a beautiful woman is compared to the sight of a basilisk – a legendary reptile said to have the power to cause death with a single glance.

These images continued to be circulated and elaborated upon in the literature and iconography of the Renaissance and Baroque periods. Boccaccio for example, in his Il Filostrato, mixes the tradition of Cupid’s arrow with the Provençal emphasis on the eyes as the birthplace of love: “Nor did he (Troilus) who was so wise shortly before... perceive that Love with his darts dwelt within the rays of those lovely eyes... nor notice the arrow that sped to his heart.” The rhetorical antithesis between the pleasure and pain from love’s dart continued through the 17th century, as for example, in these classically inspired images from The Fairy-Queen:

If Love’s a Sweet Passion, why does it torment?
If a Bitter, oh tell me whence comes my content?
Since I suffer with pleasure, why should I complain,
Or grieve at my Fate, when I know ‘tis in vain?
Yet so pleasing the Pain is, so soft is the Dart,
That at once it both wounds me, and Tickles my Heart.

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C O N T A C T
Urban Book Circle® (UBC)

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Sanja Nesic,
Serbian Italian photographer

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URBAN BOOK CIRCLE

Sanja Nesic,
photographer,
contributor to the Urban Book Circle

2015

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URBAN BOOK CIRCLE

Sanja Nesic,
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contributor to the Urban Book Circle

2014

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C O M M E N T S

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