Compelling Faces in Art - Friedrich Wilhelm von Schadow, Parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins (detail).

A call to live in anticipation of the final day of reckoning and salvation (from Matthew 25:1–13), as parable, is a warning to the church, which consists of both wise and foolish disciples; contrasting five maidens who have prepared for the arrival of their bridegrooms by obtaining oil for their lamps with five others who have squandered their opportunity and therefore miss their marriage feasts. 

If one bears in mind that this is a painting which portrays deliverance from judgment, then it alters the way in which one interprets its different qualities. The symbolism is that of light and dark; the virgins’ lamp being symbolic of prayer, the light symbolizing truth and enlightenment. The alternative, darkness, spiritual blindness, and ignorance. 

But if you view the painting in a different context (the subject turns her head to look back, revealing her beauty, as she heads towards the door almost as if to see who else is coming - drawing, or is it ‘enticing’, the viewer to follow her), it can be a discussion of virginity, sex in marriage, punishment for premarital sex, and a woman’s role in society. 

Will it reveal the moral, religious, and ethical views of the time, as well as the main problems within the church? 

Or even in our time: virginity prized for the wrong reasons; the church regulating marital sex even though the Bible allows it? 

Punishment is to be expected, but often interpreted differently.

Compelling Faces in Art - Jazzmin Windey, “Steam” series.

This photograph by Jazzmin Windey is from her “Steam” series. The subject is revealed through skeins of condensation like translucent silk. We see her body, but it is in the eyes where we come into contact with the faithful interpreter of the soul; expressing to us a secret about a secret. I am drawn to powerful, mysterious places; the source of all true art and all science. As Diane Ackerman said, “It began in mystery, and it will end in mystery, but what a savage and beautiful country lies in between.”

Compelling Faces in Art - Vincent Van Gogh, Half Figure of an Angel (after Rembrandt), 1889.

This is from an important group of paintings executed while at Saint-Paul asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence. Seeking to be reinvigorated artistically, Van Gogh did more than 30 copies of works by some of his favorite artists. But, instead of simply replicating, he sought to translate spiritual meaning and emotion of the subjects through his perspective, color, and symbolism. 

The inspiration may belong to his heros, but the works belong completely to him. 

The face of this angel, tells us so much about Van Gogh and his mind at the time in the asylum. He is the man before the angel, yet he is also looking down on himself from above. It reminds me of a passage from William Blake: “I was walking among the fires of Hell, delighted with the enjoyments of Genius; which to Angels look like torment and insanity.”

Compelling Faces in Art - Dante Gabriel Rossetti, The Beloved.

The subject of Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s “The Beloved,” is the power of woman's beauty, and is inspired by the biblical Song of Solomon. 

The Pre-Raphaelites provided a form of escape for a country soon to be transformed by coal and steel production and its peripheral side effects of poverty and pollution. They envisaged art as a means of saving the human race and fulfilling the most important human aspirations, which they sought to communicate with the forgotten sources of spirituality. 

The central figure (the bride) here, pulls back her veil to reveal her beauty and engages the viewer with her blue eyes and full red lips. The rich colors and exotic fabrics in which she is clothed heighten her sensuality. 

Incidentally, the model for this painting was Elizabeth Siddal, who also posed for Millais' Ophelia. Siddal floated in a bathtub full of water to model the drowning Ophelia, as Millais painted daily into the winter. The water would slowly become icy cold as the artist became lost in his work. Siddal became very sick with a fever, and never fully recovered.

Compelling Faces in Art - Jan Toorop, self-portrait.

The self-portrait has an enduring appeal, for giving us an insight into how the artist perceives him or herself, or how he wishes to be perceived by viewers. Jan Toorop gives us this self-portrait in 1915. A Dutch-Indonesian painter, Toorop worked in various styles, including Art Nouveau, and Pointilism. He also developed his own unique Symbolist style, with dynamic, unpredictable lines based on Javanese motifs, highly stylized willowy figures, and curvilinear designs. 

At first glance, one could conclude that Toorop is depicting himself as a master of his craft, having authority over the viewer; expressed through his wild, staring eyes, and his dominance over the picture space. It is as if he wants to shock us. It is a provocative piece. 

What I find interesting here is that there is little sense of introversion, we are not being presented with an insight into his mind. Rather we are presented with a manifesto. Or is he actually imbuing us with a sense of gravitas and mystery? 

Perhaps the manifesto really is: Exploration of your identity. Your autonomy, unrestricted from outside constraints, comes with the artistic bravura of self-investigation. And only then will a naked quality of self-knowledge emerge.

Compelling Faces in Art - Ludwig Meidner, Portrait eines jungen Mannes [Portrait of a young man], 1915.

Portrait eines jungen Mannes [Portrait of a young man], 1915, is an example of German Expressionism by Ludwig Meidner. Meidner started out painting apocalyptic landscapes, anticipating the First World War, that are considered some of the purest "expressionist" works. After the war he turned to producing religious paintings, including a long and repetitive series of portraits of prophets. He was also an habitual self portraitist, and wrote several books of dense expressionist prose. 

The subject is so interesting here, because he so accurately captures the deep gravity and seriousness of youth; truth examined with impunity, offering the promise of happiness, only to be confronted with the realities of grief; contact with what is perceived to be real, has the potential to leave one bruised and wounded, victim of a conspiracy. The world for this young man is nothing more than the terrible disease of loneliness. It is his duty to scorn the disquietude of time.

Compelling Faces in Art - Simon Vouet, self-portrait.

Simon Vouet is perhaps best remembered for helping to introduce the Italian Baroque style of painting to his native France. He lived in Italy from 1613 to 1627 (on a pension from the King of France and his patrons), where he absorbed the influences of Caravaggio's dramatic lighting, Paolo Veronese's color and “di sotto in su” or foreshortened perspective, as well as the art of Carracci, Guercino, Lanfranco and Guido Reni. 

And in this self-portrait, we find a face that has the capacity to see beauty, the desire and the need to live, a growing sense of himself in the world, and ambition. 

F. Scott Fitzgerald’s Tales of the Jazz Age comes to mind, in the words: “Youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness.”