Viewing #2

I really looked at Cassandra and Nicolai today, trying to figure out what was happening between them. Unlike a novel or a play, paintings don't have dialogue, so you have to read the body language. And the female form is often passive, a receptacle for the male gaze. But I don't think that is the case here. Yes, Cassandra is gazing downward, and Nicolai has his arm around her, looking down at her. But it feels like something else is going on between them -- he is holding his hand out to her, and she has placed her hand (and her trust?) in his. It is a very tender moment between them, and it puts them on equal footing. I also think that her right arm placed over her stomach is a gesture of vulnerability. Perhaps she has just shared something with him, and she feels vulnerable. Perhaps she feels as though their happiness is too precious to last. There is a line in the Book of Common Prayer, in the evening prayers -- "shield the joyous." Perhaps she is trying to shield herself, shield them.

They really are lovers, not just in the physical sense, but in the emotional sense as well. The sense that's harder to achieve and the more meaningful for being so.