Valentine’s Day 2025: 8 iconic artworks depicting the complexities of romance

This Valentine’s Day 2025, AD revisits some of the most popular artworks that depict love.

From the earliest cave paintings to the gilded flourishes of the Vienna Secession, artists have attempted to capture love in all its forms – lustful, exhilarating, and unbearable. Some iconic artworks render romance in soft, dreamy brushstrokes, while others twist heartbreak into something raw and jagged. And it’s not just confined to the canvas; performance artists have turned their own relationships into high-stakes emotional theatre. Even today’s most conceptual works, which at first glance seem too cool and detached to know anything about love, still pulse with its undercurrents. Here, we explore eight artworks that unravel the complexities of love – whether passionate, painful, or somewhere in between.

Antonio Canova’s Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss (1787-1793)

Photo: Supplied / Gift of Isidor Straus, 1905

To the untrained eye, Antonio Canova’s Psyche Revived by Cupid’s Kiss might just look like a couple of marble figures sharing a tender moment. But, any art historian would tell you, there’s far more to it than that. This Neoclassical masterpiece depicts the moment when Cupid, the god of love, awakens Psyche with a kiss, capturing both the intensity and vulnerability of love in one fleeting scene. Commissioned by a wealthy Venetian nobleman, the piece took Canova six years to complete. At the time, it was considered an audacious take on the classical myth, capturing a moment of love that was both tender and dramatic. Before this moment, Psyche had endured a series of trials imposed by Cupid’s jealous mother, Venus, all while unaware of her lover’s true identity. Here, Canova captures the moment the love between Cupid and Psyche reaches a resolution, symbolising the moment it triumphs over adversity. The rest of their story, like most relationships, is complicated.

Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss (1907-1908)

Photo: Supplied