There are two cards representing the Lovers in this deck.

The first one discussed is by Cerrithwen Genetti, Alexandra's and Ken's daughter. It is a collage.

The border of this card is a fantastic arrangement of pink, red, and white flowers rendered in what appears to be watercolors. A beautiful sprig of what I guess to be lilies penetrates into the central figure of the Lovers. Two tiny angels fly along the border, breaking into the central image. In a grotto wild with flowers and trees and stones is the dark stone sculpture of two human figures, a man and a woman. Both are wearing only a fig leaf. They are Adam and Eve, as Eve presents Adam with the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. They are turned to each other, their arms are around one another, and they are looking into one another's eyes. It is the last moment of innocence. But is it? Though they are looking into one another's eyes, what is it that each of them is seeing? Eve has already tasted the fruit, and her eyes have been opened. She knows good and evil. Adam has yet to touch it. Eve, loving Adam, and knowing good from evil, has decided to share her experience with him, not to harm him, but to offer him the knowledge that she has. It is a gesture of reunification of what has been rendered--knowledge and innocence. We were never meant to live in the Garden. Eve's act of love freed us from its bondage.

The second of the two Maninni Lovers is by Evangeline Brown (Ces't Egal) and was made by ClarisWorks and rubber stamps.

There are three depictions of love in this card--erotic, maternal, and sibling. We'll start with erotic love.

I've forgotten the name of the piece and the artist, but it is a work of art with which most of us are familiar. It hangs in the Louvre, and when I saw it (and took a picture of it along with the rest of the crowd standing in front of it) everyone had some comment to make. It is a large painting, supposedly depicted two sisters at their toilet. Well, I don't have a sister, and even if I did, I don't think we'd be sharing our toilet in this manner. Because no one seriously believes this is a painting of two sisters, it has been adopted as part of the lesbian canon, and I'm all for that. Two women, naked from the waist up (at least that is what we see--they are standing in front of a window sill) look out at us. The woman on the right has reached out to the woman on her left and is casually tweaking her nipple. The woman with her nipple being tweaked is extending a ring in her left hand. Both women wear fashionable earfobs, and their quarters are very lavish and elegant. An angle hovers between them. With no signs of shock or revulsion, I might add.

Beneath this painting is one of Bottacelli's Madonna and Child, so it is very beautiful--the young mother with her child in a Tuscan landscape. This is the example of maternal love. Here is a mother who will love her child unconditionally, and support him on his path, even thought it is one that will take him away from her, and rip her heart to shreds.

The third painting is that of an idealized young peasant girl holding her younger brother in her lap as he sleeps. She looks out at us, smiling, as she sits in the open field under a cloud-filled sky. Her brother knows he can rest safely under her gaze, and she finds him not to be a burden. I think I'll give my little brother a call.

Bonne'
LaSenyera@aol.com