Home/Symbols/Mask-like face and eyesMask-like face and eyes SymbolismAn impersonal, archaic visage that suppresses individual expression and turns the figure into an emblemCommon ThemesErotic desireMimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Medium reflexivity (art about art)Originality, authorship, and appropriationGender & sexualityMetamorphosis & transformationArtworks Featuring This SymbolNu sur fond rougePablo Picasso (1906)A solitary nude stands against a pulsating, uniform red field, her body reduced to <strong>rounded, sculptural planes</strong> and her face set with <strong>masklike eyes</strong>. The lowered gaze and self-touching gesture fold desire and inwardness into a single emblem, turning the figure into a <strong>proto‑Cubist icon</strong> rather than a person in space <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup>.
