Masklike faces Symbolism

Protective, ritualized visages that signal guarded sexuality and a break from naturalistic portraiture; a challenge to Western illusionism.

Common Themes

Erotic desireColonialism & empireMimesis vs. abstraction (truth vs. artifice)Mortality & transience (memento mori)Gender & sexuality

Artworks Featuring This Symbol

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Pablo Picasso

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

Pablo Picasso (1907)

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon hurls five nudes toward the viewer in a shallow, splintered chamber, turning classical beauty into <strong>sharp planes</strong>, <strong>masklike faces</strong>, and <strong>fractured space</strong>. The fruit at the bottom reads as a sensual lure edged with threat, while the women’s direct gazes indict the beholder as participant. This is the shock point of <strong>proto‑Cubism</strong>, where Picasso reengineers how modern painting means and how looking works <sup>[1]</sup><sup>[2]</sup>.