Wednesday, May 29, 2019

Ekphrasis: Part one ~en Roma~


The base of the bust perfectly captures the smooth rise of the man’s chest only interrupted by the indent of his throat and the ends of his breast trailing off to either side. Filling in the space behind him and rising up to cowl the back of his head is a hood of sorts, almost reminiscent of that of the pontifex maximus. His neck is narrow and straight seeming jut out of his body in perfect posture adding to the austere nature of this statue. His chin is speckled with wrinkles and pot marks showing him to have lived a long life, but also softening his features as his chin curves rather than coming to a point. His mouth is held in an eternal frown that is only accented by the marks on his face indicating this as a usual gesture. His lips pressed tight, indicate that only the most thought of and meaningful words could ever escape their grasp. Sitting upon these lips are his uneven frown marks and a mole on his left side further adding to the seriousness of this man and his concern with who he is, not what he looks like. His age can be further cemented through the hollowed cheeks demonstrating that even in old age he is not one to overeat or drink and is a frugal man.  His proud nose juts like a mountain ridge dominating his face and ending in a crevice of wrinkles between his hard-set eyebrows. Any room for interpretation given by his unmarked eyes is quickly taken away by the hard lines both above and to the side of them defining his expression as a Stern and severe one. The most curious thing that I noticed in the severity and detail of lines in this image is that, even with his stern expression and many wrinkles of seriousness, just below his eyes and above his mouth you see wrinkles caused by many a smile and laugh.

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