Hands, Ornament 

James Ensor's ink drawing presents us with a pair of hands, almost floating, above an ornamental object. Hands, throughout art history, are potent symbols. These hands are clasped in what could be supplication, introspection, or perhaps a moment of anxious unease. Consider the many depictions of hands in prayer across Renaissance art, or even the expressive gestures in ancient Roman sculpture. Yet, here, Ensor strips away any specific religious or cultural context, leaving us with raw emotion. The ornament below, with its ornate carvings, sits in stark contrast to the organic, almost vulnerable, hands above. It evokes the weight of tradition and artifice, whereas the hands speak of immediate, human experience. The psychological tension is palpable. Are they reaching for solace, grappling with the constraints of beauty, or tradition? Observe how motifs such as these hands are never truly new. Rather they are fragments of a collective memory, surfacing and reshaping themselves in each artist's psyche. Ensor shows us that the past is always present.