National Galleries of Scotland

Date: Tuesday 26 March 2013
Time: 6.30 – 8.30pm
Place: Hawthornden Lecture Theatre, Scottish National Gallery
Cost: £12 per ticket, Friends and guests (includes a glass of wine)
Capacity: 200
Booking required: Tickets available from the Friends office. Please enter via the back door of the Academy building

Auguste Rodin’s famous sculpture, The Kiss, portrays the two ill-fated lovers Paolo and Francesca, so poignantly described in Dante’s Inferno, locked forever in a passionate embrace. Rodin is generally considered one of the greatest sculptors of the 19th century, and The Kiss is one of his best-known works. The sculpture will be on display in the Scottish National Gallery for a year and to mark its arrival in Edinburgh Professor Elizabeth Cowling will give an introductory lecture for the Friends. She will explore the evolution of The Kiss as an immensely popular, stand-alone masterpiece and its place within Rodin’s controversial, multi-faceted erotic oeuvre. Following the lecture, there will be an opportunity to view the sculpture in the Gallery.