He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not 

Curator: We're looking at a painting attributed to Hans Zatzka entitled "He Loves Me, He Loves Me Not." Editor: It's visually lush. The composition is strikingly soft with a creamy color palette and light-dappled surfaces, which creates a definite dreamy atmosphere. Curator: Absolutely. It’s exemplary of late 19th-century academic art with a clear nod to Romanticism and classical allegories. It encapsulates certain prevalent representations of femininity and courtship rituals of the time. Consider how women’s roles were so circumscribed in relation to marriage and romance; even divining romantic interest through the plucking of flower petals speaks volumes. Editor: Yes, the allegory is quite overt. Semiotically speaking, the women are beautiful objects carefully posed in a scene rich with symbolism—the dove perhaps suggesting peace or love, the cherub a symbol of love too, and even the flowers. All contribute to this carefully orchestrated visual vocabulary. Curator: This constructed idea of love is very deliberate, particularly concerning gender. Both women are adorned in luxurious classical drapery that reveals certain erogenous zones, yet there is an air of innocence. This is so very in line with the restricted and very visually oriented courtship of the Victorian era, yet are these constraints reflected in their gaze? Note how it invites a level of viewership, which contributes to the objectification. Editor: Certainly, and even the way the light catches on the folds of the fabric, the gradations of color in the skin, serve to accentuate that beauty. The materiality is all deployed to this ideal of beauty. Curator: How do we reconcile with Zatzka's popularity today, given his oeuvre's associations with conservative tastes and problematic beauty ideals? We must consider the gaze critically and reflect on what persists today. Editor: It's that tension—that awareness of beauty and construction—that fascinates. Seeing the technical mastery, the control of light and shade, allows us to analyze where its power lies.