Amante Piangente painting by Tamassia Martins
Oil on canvas (16 x 20 inches)
I painted this after reading an article that described a complex love story about one of my favorite writers. The article told of the writer’s mixed emotions when he’d fallen in love with two women simultaneously. The title, “Amante Piangente,” means “The Crying Lover.” With the girl’s teardrop and a glass of champagne, I hope to the lonely sadness a mistress can find in such a relationship. Although brightly colored, like many of my original work, it’s a sad story and a tragic painting. Some people have asked me why she’s crying; the most straightforward answer is that being a mistress in such as situation can lead to complex and lonely circumstances. But I’d like to think that the painting more appropriately poses the question: is it possible to truly love more than one person? To which I don’t believe there is a definitive answer.
