大象传媒

From Rev鈥檇 Richard Coles, cleric and broadcaster:

I was at the National Portrait Gallery in London this week, and spent a day gazing at the great and the good, from the Virgin Queen to The Duchess of Cambridge, from JK Rowling to WG Grace.
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Hundreds of faces, some as familiar as my own, others a surprise (who knew the Romantic poet John Clare looks just like Grayson Perry?). But the best were the ones where you felt the painter had got rather more of the sitter than the sitter intended.
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A portrait of a Tudor queen, magnificent in her display of wealth and power; but, looking out nervously from the frills and furs, the pale face seems all eyes and ears for the knock at the door and a one-way boat ride.
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A bit further on, the Kit Kat Club, ruthless power brokers of 18th C English politics, but so camp and dressy they look like Lady Gagas backstage at London Fashion Week.
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And a hundred years later, the Duke of Wellington, implacable enemy of progress, fading into the canvas of a painting left unfinished, when the artist inconveniently died.
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A lesson in that for us all. Despite our best efforts to put on our best faces, sooner or later time will paint its own version, indelibly. We can hold it at bay, by an effort of will, or slap, or surgery, but it will win in the end. And there鈥檚 more: 鈥淎fter the age of fifty鈥�, said Coco Chanel, 鈥渆veryone has the face they deserve鈥�.
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I can attest to the truth of that personally, having passed the milestone, and see in the mirror the record of my deeds and misdeeds. Uncomfortable at first - for who wouldn鈥檛 want to retain the flower-freshness of youth? 鈥� but youth passes, gets overwritten by experience, and while that can be difficult to look at for long, perhaps we should look, and look harder, and try to discern in the faces we end up with what God sees in us: his infinitely precious and beloved creation.