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An Act of Artistic Voyeurism: It’s Sexy Being Included! Ciara Gordon
Giulio Romano’s oil painting, Two Lovers (1524), is evocative as it implicates the viewer in the erotic act he depicts. The painting situates the viewer within an act of voyeurism, mirroring that of the old lady in the far right of the frame. Voyeurism implies that the act that is being observed is secluded and private for those being observed, but Romano’s painting brings the voyeur beyond observation and into the action itself. Romano implicates the viewer through his use of bright lighting, unabashed and open positioning, the figures’ gazes, and the involvement of the viewer’s own act of eroticism by the acknowledgment of the sexual content. In recognizing the sensuality of the piece, and by contemplating the two figures in this act, the viewer is imparting their own sexuality and eroticism onto the piece. Through the lovers’ exhibition, they include the viewer in their sexual act. The Two Lovers asks something of the viewer, and that is to let themselves sit in this arousal purely for the sake of pleasure. Romano does not depict the figures as engaging in an act for procreative purpose or spiritual love, but rather experiencing the empowerment of an act of desiring for the sole sake of desire. Romano depicts the lovers and the scene brightly, highlighting the lovers against the dark canopy of their bed. The image leaves no secrets hiding in the darkness about the pair’s love affair. Using such clear lighting, Romano highlights everything going on in the painting with the intention of it being seen. The two lovers are explicitly visible, the old woman peeking around the door is visible, the bed and the sexual carvings are all visible: nothing within the painting is hiding or asking the viewer to spy any secrets in the shad-
