Edvard MunchArticle Free Pass Love’s awakening is shown in The
Voice (1893), where on a summer night a girl standing among
trees seems to be summoned more by an inner voice than by any
sounds from a boat on the sea behind her. Compositionally, this
is one of several paintings in the Frieze in which the winding
horizontal of the coastline is counterpoised with the verticals
of trees, figures, or the pillarlike reflection across the sea
of sun or moon. Love’s blossoming is shown in The Kiss (1892),
in which a man and woman are locked in a tender and passionate
embrace, their bodies merging into a single undulating form and
their faces melting so completely into each other that neither
retains any individual features. An especially powerful image of
the surrender, or transcendence, of individuality is Madonna
(1894–95), which shows a naked woman with her head thrown back
in ecstasy, her eyes closed, and a red halo-like shape above her
flowing black hair. This may be understood as the moment of
conception, but th