By Plinio Corrêa de Oliveira
This section has often dealt with ambiences created by buildings, furniture, landscapes, etc. It would be interesting to emphasize that the principal element of all ambiences is man himself. A self evident truth in respect to the ideals that man expresses and the actions he performs, but it is perhaps less evident in what could be called the ‘imponderables’ of the human presence: the bearing, the attitude, the gaze.
Let us stop to analyze the human gaze.
Our first picture represents one of the most distinguished personalities of the French ultra-montane movement in the 19th century, Dom Prospero Guéranger, O.S.B., founder and Abbot of the famous Monastery of Solesmes, restorer of the Sacred Liturgy, extraordinary writer, and good friend of Louis Veuillot.
The broad forehead and the well defined and vigorous features indicate intelligence and strength of personality. But all that these features can signify is condensed, consolidated, and carried to the highest potential of expression in the eyes. Large, clear eyes, full of light, which seem to have never mirrored any weakness or human baseness. Large eyes that seem to be made exclusively for the consideration of the most transcendental of this life and for the immense horizons of Heaven.
But at the same time a gaze of an invincible force, piercing in relation to earthly matters, capable of penetrating all the affectations, the sophisms, and the artificialities of men, plunging even to the deepest recesses of events and souls.
Soul of a just and contemplative man, who sight is high and profound because he lives immersed in the clarity of a logical mind, illuminated by an impeccably orthodox faith.
Before such a gaze, how can we not think of the beautiful words the Holy Father Pius XII in his June 12 address to the members of the First Latin Congress of Ophthalmology: “Everything is reflected in the eyes, not only the visible world, but also the passions of the souls. Even a superficial observer discerns in them the most diverse sentiments: anger, fear, hatred, affection, happiness, confidence or serenity. The movement of the different facial muscles find themselves somehow concentrated and converged in the eyes, as in a mirror.”
Let us pass from the large eyes that Dom Guéranger kept so open for Heaven and this life to the admirable expression of eyes that are closed in death, and that will only open again “on the last day” in order to contemplate the Universal Judgement.
This is the admirable funeral mask of Saint Philip Neri, the famous apostle of Rome in the 16th century. Such was the vigor of his personality was one could say that his death mask still shines with wit, vigor, a lightness and gentle irony; he seems on the point of half opening his lips in an imperceptible smile.
But the ‘gaze’ is still the most expressive note, with a fixity, a lucidity, and a force that shines through not only the closed eyelids but also through the veils of death and time. It allows us to see the depths of his coherency, vigor and health of soul. Strength, harmony and logic of a Saint who was worthy to see the light of God in Heaven.
Ambience Customs & Civilization, “Catolicismo” No. 45 – September 1954
