Portret van de vrouw van Edouard Epaulard 1889 - 1900

This photograph by Victor Daireaux captures Madame Epaulard in a formal portrait. The brooch she wears, centered at her collar, acts as a focal point, drawing our eye with its circular shape and metallic gleam. This emblem is reminiscent of the ancient solar symbols, icons of power and illumination. We see these circular motifs echoed across millennia—from the sun disks of ancient Egypt to the haloed saints of Byzantine art. Though seemingly secular here, its ancestral echoes resonate. The brooch’s placement near the throat suggests an opening, a voice waiting to be heard, yet restrained. Consider the psychological weight of such symbols—how they tap into a collective memory, stirring subconscious recognition and perhaps a longing for the archetypal authority they once represented. These ancestral symbols resurface, evolve, and take on new meanings in different historical contexts.