Raphael (1483–1520), The Madonna of the Pinks, about 1506–7. © The National Gallery, London. Bought with the assistance of the Heritage Lottery Fund, The Art Fund (with a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation), the American Friends of the National Gallery, the George Beaumont Group, Sir Christopher Ondaatje and through public appeal, 2004

Exhibition Review – Jenny Gillions gets all loved up at the National Gallery, where Love will be lighting up the Sunley Room until October 5 2008.

After sojourns in Bristol and Newcastle, the touring ‘Love’ exhibition comes to London, for a rendezvous in the National Gallery’s Sunley Room.

‘Love’ showcases art from the 16th to the 20th century that depicts love in all its forms. Comprising works from artists as diverse as Raphael, Tracey Emin, Vermeer and Rosetti, the exhibition attempts to illustrate how many ways we can interpret the word ‘love’. In this it succeeds.

The first piece (which is possible to miss, hung as it is on the wall outside the exhibition gallery) is Tracey Emin’s Those who Suffer Love (Im (sic) OK now) (2001-5), a primarily textual work in two halves.

Tracey Emin (born 1963), Those who Suffer Love (Im OK now), 2001–5, Murderme, London. © Tracey Emin. Courtesy Jay Jopling / White Cube, London

Her expression of the pain love can cause is reflected in Marc Chagall’s Bouquet with Flying Lovers (about 1934-47) and William Holman Hunt’s Isabella and the Pot of Basil (1867).

Both the latter works were completed after the artists’ wives died; while Chagall explicitly addresses his own grief by painting himself and his wife, Hunt conceals his emotions behind the 14th century story of Isabella and Lorenzo.

The idea that depictions of love are inexorably linked to contemporary politics and faith is also made obvious. In Cranach the Elder’s Cupid Complaining to Venus (about 1525), dressing the otherwise naked goddess Venus in a fashionable 16th-century hat enabled Cranach to paint a modern, sensual woman, while ostensibly remaining within the boundaries of good taste.

William Holman Hunt (1827–1910), Isabella and the Pot of Basil, 1867, Laing Art Gallery © Tyne & Wear Museums, Newcastle upon Tyne

Eroticism, in a bawdier form, is the subject of Jan Steen’s An Interior with a Man Offering an Oyster to a Woman (prob. 1660-5) and Francisco de Goya’s A Picnic (1785-90). Both paintings offer the viewer an insight into contemporary fashion, symbolism and reactions to sexual suggestiveness.

The range of subject matter in the exhibition is however problematic in that it could include virtually any work touching on love.

Chosen themes are ‘Ecstasy and Pain’, ‘Faith and Absence’, ‘Flirtation’, ‘Intimacy’, 'Anticipation and Disappointment’, ‘Enduring Love’ and ‘Victory’ but they seem artificial and nothing explicitly suggests them to the viewer. That said, ‘Love’, while unfocused, is sufficiently rich in variety to offer some real treasures.

Marc Quinn (born 1964), Kiss, 200. Private collection. © Marc Quinn. Photo Roger Sinek. Courtesy Jay Jopling / White Cube, London

Dante Gabriel Rosetti’s Astarte Syriaca (1877) skilfully conveys a seductive woman’s power, whereas Stanley Spencer’s sweet tribute to intimacy, The Beatitudes of Love: Contemplation (1937), is a comforting reminder that love can endure beyond middle age and weight gain.

The layout makes ‘Love’ a little awkward. Marc Quinn’s evocative sculpture, Kiss (2001) is in a different gallery. This disconnects it mentally from the other pieces. Also separate is Yoko Ono’s new conceptual work, Secret Piece II, to which all visitors can contribute with Post-It notes bearing messages to loved ones.

It’s a charming idea. Initially, Secret Piece II was outside the Sunley Room but proved too popular for the allotted space and has been moved downstairs – given the expected visitor numbers, the original planning was perhaps a little short-sighted.

Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882), Astarte Syriaca, 1877, Manchester Art Gallery. © Manchester City Galleries

Within its own room, however, the piece is allowed to breathe and visitors are given space to think about how they want to make their mark.

It has the potential to neatly tie the exhibition’s range of concepts together; as a way to finish ‘Love’, and to enable viewers to reflect on what the word means to them, the enforced separation, like the exhibition, has its merits.