The Son of Man

A man wearing an oversized blazer over a white shirt, paired with a red tie, and a bowler hat posing by the sea, near a short wall, on a cloudy day. What about this painting makes us curious? It is Magritte's face that has been hidden behind a floating ripe green apple.

Magritte says, "Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present."

Well, that says it all. But, why an apple? Why not a pomegranate? I'm sure Rene enjoyed how a very familiar and mediocre object creates a contest with the face or focal point of a painting. While there are various depictions as to why an apple, some claim that The Son of Man is Adam's fall on Earth, a modern Christ figure. The temptation and sin that Christ was intended to reverse. That is why apple is floating in mid air. There also happens to be a Latin pun where Sin sounds almost like Apple.

Rene has left some tiny details of him. The peeking eyes, long ears, crooked left elbow. Magritte achieved something rarer - relatability. Anyone who looks at this self portrait relates with him. Somewhere or other, by someone or other we are overlooked, and we get lesser attention than something witless. And we do that too. We are caught in a hook by the hidden, the so called unknown mystery.

But it lies there. We just don't see that. We just have to see what is there in front of us. In this case just the apple. We can see Rene through the apple. Like he is pressing his lips and has a stern look. He seems to be a man like that. If fists are loosely clutched then lips has to be pressed.

What level of acceptance and satisfaction Rene should have practised to have reached this level of understanding of human mind? Is it because of his mother's suicide when he was 13 years old?