Title: “The Mask/Le Masque”

Original oil painting on canvas.

48’’ x 36’’ inches.

The Mask

“Allegorical Statue in the Style of the Renaissance.

It is a legacy of Tuscan skill;

see how the holy sisters, Power and Grace,

sustain this woman’s beauty in a form

so faultless as to seem miraculous—

given pride of place above rich beds

to charm a prince’s leisure, or a pope’s. . .

—Notice the faint voluptuous smile that shows,

that shares the consummation of Desire;

observe that teasing glance which penetrates

the subtle coquetry of gauzy veils

around a face whose every feature speaks,

not just the parted lips too shy to boast:

“When Lust commands me, even Love obeys!”

Look how the languor in her posture adds

a certain mischief to this majesty;

come closer—walk around her loveliness. . .

What blasphemy of art is this! Upon

a body made to offer every bliss

appear. . . two heads! A monster? No—

one is merely a mask, a grinning cheat

that smile, illumined with exquisite care.

Look there: contorted in her misery,

the actual head, the woman’s countenance

lost in the shadow of the lying mask. . .

Pathos of true beauty! the bright tears

trickle into my astonished heart;

your lie intoxicates me, and my soul

slakes its passion in your brimming eyes!

—Why is she weeping? Surely such a face

would put all mankind, vanquished, at her feet!

What secret evil feeds on her firm flesh?

—She weeps, you fool, for having lived! and for

living—yet what she laments the most,

what makes her body tremble head to toe,

is that tomorrow she will have to live,

and all tomorrows after—like ourselves!”

— Poem by Charles Baudelaire