The Missing Gaze

What is missing?

His eyes. They've been stolen. A cruel jagged mask severed the reciprocal view from the viewer.

So we gaze at his beauty through a cloak of invisibility. Never do we need to feel ashamed or subjected to the judgment of his return gaze. His youthful lips and ripened cheeks are objects of our adoration. But we cannot connect to him. The association with a real figure is partially lost.

Yet, the fragmentation provokes a new way of looking at him. It is one-side, selfish and fitting for these impersonal times.

We can judge him. But he can no longer judge us.

Fragmentary Colossal Head of a Youth. Greek, Hellenistic Period, 2nd Cent. B.C. Discovered at Pergamon. (Photo taken at the Metropolitan Museum, New York)