Ekpharsis

He turns his head, casting a blank stare into the vast nothingness before him with hollow eyes, neither expressing joy nor woe.  Gleaming white skin wraps his face in youthful purity while sunset cheeks radiate the warmth of life.  His hair curls into the thick locks, cushioning his innocent brow in damp golden furls and braided with a similar golden bow.  Atop this head sits a cap bent as if windswept from the blistering sea that buffets from every direction with a gold breeze lifting from the underside as if guided from the sea on a streak of golden water.  Golden petals blossom down the ivory sleeve ruffled at the end, leading to a lightly clenched hand grasping onto a bow and arrow awaiting the hand of Eros to guide it to the breast of a would be lover.  The trousers and shirt are teaming with ornate blossoms that swarm around his garments as though they are the locusts of vanity sent to infest their brilliance upon everything.  The left hand caresses a rusty golden braided tassel draped across his shoulder holding the cape swathed across his back as if grandeur itself lighted upon his back.  This regal backdrop cascades down his back onto a pearlescent pedestal.  The eyes travel down this object glancing at his unabashedly perfect stockings traveling to his feet as if guided by silk feathers.  Placed on his feet like crystal ornaments are shoes embellished with buttoned waves of cloth with sunlit yellow leaves on the toes.  Strewn around his feet as though they were loosed from his cloth with a heavenly sigh are golden parcels.

This piece is found on “The Shelf” titled “Figure in 18^th Century Garment” by Artist Unknown