Painting has been one of the most creative ways to express people’s feelings that are scarcely hidden inside their hearts, which cannot be orally expressed by any way except painting. It could show a true love as does Gabriele Castagnola’s amazing painting, Love or Duty. The special thing about this picture is that it was professionally drawn by using kind of oily colors at a time that drawing and coloring by oil were quite difficult, when there was nobody could easily draw professionally except those whom are enough experienced. This picture looks like it takes place in a Roman Catholic Church. The things that distinguish this picture are the way it is being represented, in another words, the painting’s composition. The theme is about love and relationship, and how its design elements interrelate with the main purpose of it.

First of all, Love or Duty is a painting that represents a lay sister that fell in love with a painter. As the picture clearly shows, the painter draws a picture that has a mother with three children, two boys and a girl. Through the picture, the painter is holding his paint brushes and colors on a board by his left hand. At the same time, he’s gently holding the sister’s hands with his right hand. We can feel his big love from the brush at the ground. It’s showing that he threw it when he saw her, and no painter throws a brush without a majestic reason, because colors and brushes have a very big value to painters. On the other side, the sister is very sedate and holding the painter’s hand with her two hands. The painter looks at her eyes and keeps staring upon her. Based on this attitude, he is beseechingly asking her to get married with him and she is getting shy and speechless. He is fervently having a big hope from her to accept his demand. But she looks like a little worried. She looks like she loves him and want to marry him, because she allowed him to hold her hands. But on the other hand she is thinking about her duty and work position. She cannot go with both love and her duty at church. Because in the Roman Catholic Church’s laws, nuns cannot get married, because they are married to Jesus Christ. But the painter is dreaming to have children from her after getting married as the back picture obviously shows. So, she is unable to express her feeling on her face and decide what to choose. 

Moreover, Love or Duty produces a list of obvious themes that affect our emotions and make us think long by looking on the painting. In this picture, specifically, a couple of themes emerge. For instance, love, family, and religion. In main, love occupies the first place of these three elements mentioned right before, because it covers, as it can be seen, the main purpose of the whole painting. Sister’s shyness and painter’s insistence in convincing her to get married create an atmosphere of love. Family, which is the second theme, is the result of the love between a male and female quite exactly like the painter and his lover. As it is known that love ends up with getting marriage between lovers and creating a family as the painter wisely delivers this idea through his painting by showing us the equation that states that love plus marriage typically equals to a happy result which is family. We can see the angle of the painter’s eyes, they are looking at the nun and the painting that he drew. This angle is taking attention the viewer to understand the picture correctly and imagine the story of love between them. Lastly, the religion element that has been shown by the white outfit of the female. This outfit deliver the religion of the female and make the viewer know that she’s a nun. So we can see now the problem of this love relationship that might not ends by a happy marriage because of her duty as a nun and the laws at the church. 

Lastly, there are many design elements showing in the painting, which make it quite perfect and special. Elements that are sagely chosen by the painter intent to leave a special impression in the viewers’ hearts in order to fell in love with the drawing. The accuracy of this painting and the angle of its drawing have been chosen with a high precise to get our eyes’ attention when we look at it and get impressed. The painter location at the middle watching the sister to the up with that hope vision his red outfit, that makes him distinct, also the nun’s clothes that are bright more than background, her standing with a sloping head and the face features, the painting at the right side with mom and children setting in a nature place, the background with its religious features and dimmer lighting, each thing of those makes the picture unique and perfect. All of the balancing in the locations of people and objects at the, middle, up and down with their surface and space, and the colors, as dark and light and shadow, and the volume of each thing at the picture make a professional work on this picture, and tell the true story and the goal of this painting.  If we just get so close to the painting’s bottom, we can see a documentation text expresses the painting’s title, which is “Love or duty”. Furthermore, Love or Duty’s painting is filled with colors. Those colors symbolize the painting’s energy, vivacity, and its reality. 

In conclusion, Love or Duty is one of the most magnum opus paintings that were drawn in the 19th century. They literally carry a meaning of humanity, nature innate, meaning of love, dreams, and peaceful. Love or Duty takes you to a tour of beauty and novelty by its aesthetics. Finally, the artist showed us versatility in using elements effectively in a way that linked them all together to efficiently work as one complete work.
