Deirdre's kiss

When my arms wrap you round I press
My heart upon the loveliness
That has long faded from the world;

-W.B. Yeats-

This sculpture is based on a carving on an Irish high Cross erected in the 9th century and on a sculpture of Brancusi. That's why I have changed its name into "Deirdre's kiss". Deirdre is the most tragic heroine in all of Irish legend. Many retellings of her story (including Yeats dramatisation) made her the best-known figure from Celtic mythology in the world. The kiss is a sculpture of Brancusi depicting an embracing couple as a single block of stone.

We'll use Deirdre's name and Brancusi's story, as hers is too sad:

Deirdre was the most beautiful woman in the world, but she bore the curse that only sorrow would come from her beauty. Chosen to be the wife of a king, she was kept in solitude. One day, though, she saw blood on the snowy ground and a raven nearby. Instantly she remembered a dream she had, of a young man with the same colouring: black hair, white skin, and red lips [Snow White ?!? :)) ]. Her nurse told her of Naoise, they secretly met, instantly fell in love and fled to Scotland, where they lived a rugged but happy life, until rumor reached them that the king would welcome them back into Ireland.

Deirdre knew by intuition that if they returned to Ireland, tragedy would follow. While sailing across to Ireland Deirdre continued to see gloomy portents, including a blood red cloud, but Naoise continued to ignore her warnings. Deirdre's premonitions proved correct, Naoise and his brothers were murdered and Deirdre herself was taken captive. She committed suicide by leaning out of her chariot.

I believe in Brancusi's story, I'll call it a real life fairytale. A couple as a single block of stone, two as one. We've been told that the story is real:

"The people who call my work 'abstract' are imbeciles; what they call 'abstract' is in fact the purest realism, the reality of which is not represented by external form but by the idea behind it, the essence of the work."