Rodin makes the softest most romantic kiss ever created in white marble.

This famous sculpture was actually originally called "Francesca da Rimini." Francesca was an Italian noblewoman, the daughter of Guido da Polenta, Lord of Ravenna. She was also portrayed as a character in Dante's "Divine Comedy." Francesca was wedded to the brave, yet crippled, Giovanni Malatesta, son of the Lord of Rimini. The marriage was a political one; Guido had been at war with the Malatesta Family, and the marriage of his daughter to Giovanni was a way to solidify the peace that had been negotiated between the Malatesta and the Polenta families.

While in Rimini, Francesca fell in love with her husband's younger brother, Paolo. Though Paolo too was married, they managed to carry on a lustful affair for some ten years, until Giovanni ultimately surprised them in Francesca’s bedroom sometime in 1286, killing them both.

They were caught making out while reading the story of Lancelot and Guinevere. Rodin placed a book in Paolo's hand to mark that moment, and chose the instantaneous gesture just before the kiss, as it appears: their lips don't touch. Some say that their lips don't actually touch because they were interrupted by Francesca's husband and killed.

The embracing couple originally appeared in Rodin's monumental bronze portal The Gates of Hell. The couple were later removed from the Gates and replaced with another pair of lovers located on the smaller right-hand column. Rodin was criticized for creating a piece that was "too sexy," and the sculpture was considered unsuitable for public display.

In 1900, Rodin was commissioned to make a replica of The Kiss for American art collector Edward Perry Warren, who lived in England with his lover John Marshall. The contract for the commission included that "the genitals of the man must be complete." A previous letter explained that "being a pagan and lover of antiquities," Warren hoped that the genitals of the man would be sculpted prominently in the Classical Greek style and not hidden. Rodin didn't quite comply, and it is believed that Warren was disappointed.