Human existence as a revelation of the invisible and the stake of beauty (Inspired by Oscar Wilde’s play “The Picture of Dorian Gray”) – Part II

The Role of the Portrait: Mirror, Revelation, and Artistic Risk

The portrait is a visible symbol of all the modalities of the soul, more specifically a sign of what man causes in his soul, an indicator of the soul’s course either towards sin or towards purification. Is there some subtle connection between the chemical elements shaped and colored on the canvas and the psyche of the depicted?¹ And if it really exists, is it only the psyche of the depicted person or does the psyche of the artist also emerge through his form?

Maurice-Merleau Ponty believed that painting expresses what exists, on the other hand Sartre believed that the art of painting is the expression of what does not exist.² The play between visible and invisible depicted in the portrait externalizes the nature of imagination as such. Imagination is the only act of conscious action that is completely spontaneous and unmotivated. Imagination is the vision of the invisible, not of the non-existent, at once an invisible, in terms of its materiality, form, it evokes lived actions in the corporeality of human existence, which reveals the hic et nunc of infinite inner space-time.

In Ponty the visible is realized and revealed through man, always including an irreducible side, the invisible. But the invisible is not simply projected as a potential invisible or the visible as a possible for another, rather, they are in a ceaseless activation that provides the possibility of dialectication within the existential flesh, which unfolds as an in-betweenness between visible-invisible. The body is simultaneously active and passive, as the visible body moves and activates its gaze, making available to its contact with the exterior, a piece of its interiority.

The gaze is the meeting of the visible and the invisible, for this reason they believed, since ancient times, that the face is the index of the soul (Vultus est index animi). The face becomes the mirror of the soul, and if the face is the mirror of the soul then there are people who have ugly souls, as Gustave Flaubert said³. Many perceive that the active intentionality of the face as part of the body shape projects their selfhood, their habits and actions, their truth, a fact which they cannot bear, which is why they unconsciously avoid facing their image in the mirror. The mirror functions as a reminder of Being, but also of becoming through the appearance that constitutes the reflection of personal life.

“No matter how many mirrors you look into, you cannot see your own gaze“⁴, according to Lacan, meaning the surprise of the spontaneity of the gaze movement, but what happens when in the place of the mirror there is the portrait? When the fleeting movement of the gaze reflected in the mirror is permanently, irreversibly and statically captured in the portrait, constantly reminding the Becoming of the existence of the depicted, and at the same time the artist. The portraits express their own life which hides something fatal: the ambiguity of human existence. On the one hand the portrait, on the other the human existence and between them the life within which human existence soul and body is revealed. The portrait is the magic mirror that reveals the body and at the same time the soul, communicating human existence, since the work of art is not subject to the non-existence of mortality. The artist feels like a god, he created a creation that will remain in eternity, which is shaped through the body of the depicted, a mortal man, Dorian Gray, whose youth and beauty make the beauty of art special.

Dorian Gray is a young man whose strong, dynamic personality, full of life, is mirrored in his unparalleled beauty. Basil Hallward is the painter who created his portrait, who is disillusioned by Dorian’s beauty, to the point where a narcissistic relationship develops on both sides, through which the danger of beauty emerges. Basil as a creator experiences an artistic eroticism towards his work, expressing this artistic eroticism to Dorian. The creator is physically and mentally possessed by the form and personality of Dorian, who for the painter embodies the invisible ideal.

Basil is so passionate about the source of his inspiration that he tends to cling to Dorian, even identifying with him. During the development of the play, therefore, a kind of heteropathic identification (Scheler)⁵ of Basil with Dorian is observed, as there are moments when Basil’s Ego is subjugated and “swallowed” by Dorian’s Ego.⁶ On the other hand, Dorian clings to his image, feeling an invincible eroticism, not, however, for the creator who created the portrait, but for the form of himself. In this case the work of art as an image of the subject “swallows” the Ego of the subject in a paradoxical way, not making it weak, but hypertrophic. We could say that the image- body encloses the shape-body, strengthening the selfishness that turns into selfishness.

The portrait ensures immortality for both. Basil as the creator feels an unconquerable passion for the power of creation, which takes flesh and blood through the form of Dorian. Art as a condition of immortality is a critical stake, since the moment often conceals more than it reveals. The art reveals Dorian’s dazzling beauty, prompting him to discover for himself the underlying truth, the tragedy behind all that is beautiful. Dorian, of course, believed that his beauty would remain unchanged, after he sold his soul, with the consequence that the image – body and not the shape – body would age. Corporality, however, is inseparable, the image-body reflects the modalities of the shape-body, with the consequence that the weariness of death, in Dorian’s case, is punishment and not redemption, since the portrait would create terror by projecting what is not would he ever die, Dorian’s consciousness, the consciousness that would watch and judge him mercilessly through the canvas wearing away at his form. Who can bear the idea of ​​their soul coming to the surface as something disgusting..? Could it be that, in the end, the visibility of the soul is a fear, but at the same time an inner desire of everyone, so that they can change everything that happens in their soul?

“The gift of the image is that it provides you with a place to watch your soul”⁷, this formulation of psychologist James Hillman expresses the psychosomatic unity of human existence. The soul, for some is identified with the spirit, for others with consciousness, for others it does not exist in the sense of an independent entity, but only with the organic meaning of the brain, while for others it is revealed through and within the physicality. The soul as such is an immaterial entity, it is not experienced, it does not become visible, with the consequence that its entity is not confirmed. Oscar Wilde expresses these concerns in his story “The Fisherman and his Soul”, where the fisherman asks himself: “What does my soul need me for? Can I see her? Am I touching her? Do I even know her?’⁸ In “The Picture of Dorian Gray” the look that confronts the image of the body evolves as an experience of the soul, the ages of existence, the modalities of familiarizing its Being through Dorian’s actions.

The portrait depicts the beauty and youth of Dorian, who feels absolute pleasure, since he does not admire another’s beauty, he does not try to assimilate the beauty of another form, but has the privilege of admiring his own beauty, feeling with him the way it has already conquered the very idea of ​​beauty. His beauty, however, will develop into the greatest risk that will bring him face to face with the consequences of his actions. Dorian believes that he has the privilege, like no one else, of being close to beauty, but he is deluding himself, because, due to his abominable actions and the reclusive life he leads, his distance from beauty is magnified, precisely because he cannot endure the closeness to his form which reveals all that he is or all that he has become.

The sense of his beauty overwhelmed him like a revelation, it was the first time he felt such admiration, as if he saw his own form in a mirror, and even more strongly, but the life he had created would destroy his body. At this point, a form of Cartesian approach is observed regarding the reflection of the soul’s passions in the body, which body, here, is not just a machine, but a revelation of beauty, which emerges as an experience of the visible-invisible chiasm.⁹

Dorian is seduced by the ideas of Lord Henry Wotton, who approached life with extreme cynicism, believing that humanity’s greatest fault is taking itself too seriously. Lord Henry sought the acquisition of experiences that offer temporary pleasures, as he believed that life is short and meaning lies in the immediacy of pleasures, as he characteristically states: “Sin is the only real colour-element left in modern life.”¹⁰ Henry treats sin as something natural inherent in human existence, a fundamental element in the creation of human civilization. He believed, therefore, that man is able to discover culture in two ways: one is through education, Henry finding here that the labor of the individual for education makes genius more lasting than beauty.¹¹ The other way is the corruption that governs the multiplicity. In fact, for the Lord, corruption is formed in the person of man, for this very reason, from one point on in the story, it will be a threat to Dorian, because the Lord will seek to penetrate into the bowels of his soul, to face, a fact that terrifies Dorian, who does not want the erosion of the face of his soul to be revealed.

Lord Henry believed that only art has a soul, not man, unlike Dorian who believed that man has a soul, which is a terrible reality, you buy it, you sell it, you trade it, as he himself did to conquer eternal youth.¹² Man, moreover, has the ability to perfect it or to poison it, as Dorian himself poisoned his soul.

Dorian believes that he discovers a genius in the person of Lord, a man who has discovered the secret of life. Dorian decides to put into practice the Lord’s perceptions of the supposed good life, in fact, he identifies with him, only in this case the identification is idiopathic (Scheler),¹³ that is, Henry’s Ego absorbs Dorian’s Ego, to the point that Dorian loses his identity. Dorian is drawn into a vicious circle of recluse life, initially mortally wounding his beloved Sibyl, influenced by Lord Henry’s view that love, like art, is a form of imitation, doubting its authenticity. Dorian behaves disrespectfully towards his beloved, whom he abandons. Unable to overcome her disappointment, the girl commits suicide.

The deeper Dorian entered the world of depravity, the more corroded the portrait, which, however, despite the corrosion and ugliness, still retained its resemblance to Dorian’s living form, reminding him every minute of who he was.

Dorian’s familiarity with insignificance and evil had the consequence of altering his perception of beauty, since there were moments when he faced evil as a method through which he would make visible the idea of ​​beauty,¹⁴ seeking it in conditions and situations that bring surface the human entity as a punctum caecum in the flow of spatiotemporal becoming. The secret of his youth which had once been never to feel what did not suit him had been superseded by all those vile experiences and vile feelings which had overwhelmed him and which are unbecoming of any human being.

His actions made visible the ugliness of his thoughts and desires, stigmatizing every part of his physicality. The ugliness, which he hated, had been written into his entire being, was now the only dead-end reality within which he exhausted his essence. The savagery of his actions, the hateful shelters, the violence and the vulgarity had sullied his lust for life, trapping him in a paranoid relationship with freedom, which he continued with perversion.

Dorian was trapped in a labyrinthine path of evil. He reaches a critical point where he can’t stand the voice of his conscience, he began to loathe the portrait, his very form externalized in his physical matter, as it glared at him with its menacing gaze, intent on punishing him, exuding a sense imminent death. Dorian projecting his distaste for the painting to Basil, the creator, is seduced and driven to the doomed act of murder.

Purification, Fall, and the Visibility of the Soul

This scene exudes a metaphysical feeling, concealing meanings about the relationship between man and God. Dorian symbolizes the human being, who in his incarnate form within the world, having free will, falls from the beauty of innocence to the ugliness of wickedness, consequently wanting to take revenge on his Creator, who, apart from condemning him limiting him to corruption, with the final result of irreversible death, he gave him free will, with the consequence that man is willingly thrown (Heidegger) into the world of depravity.

In an attempt to cover up the crime and get away, Dorian blackmails an old chemist friend, Alan Campbell, into helping him dispose of the corpse’s flesh. Campbell, unable to bear the burden of covering up this heinous act, kills himself.

Dorian Gray, now trapped in an endless cycle of death, unable to bear his consciousness that was constantly imprinting on him through the portrait, decides to destroy it, believing that in this way he would exorcise the past, that he would put an end to its monstrous turn of his soul, he would be freed from the remorse imposed on him by his horrible form in the portrait, and thus he would regain his beauty, reaching, at last, purification. What form does purification take? Is purification synonymous with beauty? Dorian Gray would answer the question in the most unpredictable and irreversible way. So he grabs the knife and stabs this portrait, then his scream is heard, followed by a deafening thud. Some passers-by who were passing by outside the house realized that something had happened and notified the police. The officers tried in vain to break into the house to get inside. When the servants later entered the room they saw on the wall the portrait that shone amazingly depicting Dorian’s youth and beauty as he had been before he drifted off into seclusion. On the floor lay a dead man, gruesomely aged, he was the present bodily identity of Dorian Gray.¹⁵

The innocence of the past prevailed over the wickedness of the present, restoring beauty to the portrait form, which returned to the immortality it deserved.¹⁶ Beauty penetrates and catalyzes chronological limitation, but also the very human existence that unfolds within it. Beauty challenges and invites human existence to undertake the stake of sculpting the visible-invisible, body-soul relationship, because only when man takes care of his physical dimension, is it preserved unchanged and the beauty of his existential statue is revealed. On the contrary, when man does not take care of one of the two, the unity between them is broken, with the consequence that the ugliness of depravity erodes his existence. Innocence reveals a priori beauty, while purification reveals beauty’s stake, the arduous struggle, the toil it must endure, as it appropriates freedom, taking responsibility for its actions.

The Role of the Portrait: Mirror, Revelation, and Artistic Risk

The history of the portrait of Dorian Gray highlights the newest and most modern style of portraiture, which establishes the modern history of the image. The technique of portraiture establishes the understanding of the relationship between the image as a form and the medium, i.e. the portrait. The technique of the portrait ferments within the historical, social and artistic needs, a fact that is observed in the transition from the era of the depiction of coat of arms to the depiction of embodied forms of specific persons. The technique of the portrait transitions from the social body, from the symbol that expresses social class and genealogical space-time, to the body image, to the uniqueness of human physicality through the depiction of a specific, unique face.

The portrait is a visible symbol of all the modalities of the soul, more specifically a sign of what man causes in his soul, an indicator of the soul’s course either towards sin or towards purification. Is there some subtle connection between the chemical elements shaped and colored on the canvas and the psyche of the depicted?¹⁷ And if it really exists, is it only the psyche of the depicted person or does the psyche of the artist also emerge through his form?

Maurice-Merleau Ponty believed that painting expresses what exists, on the other hand Sartre believed that the art of painting is the expression of what does not exist.⁴ The play between visible and invisible depicted in the portrait externalizes the nature of imagination as such. Imagination is the only act of conscious action that is completely spontaneous and unmotivated.⁵ Imagination is the vision of the invisible, not of the non-existent, at once an invisible, in terms of its materiality, form, it evokes lived actions in the corporeality of human existence, which reveals the hic et nunc of infinite inner space-time.

In Ponty the visible is realized and revealed through man, always including an irreducible side, the invisible. But the invisible is not simply projected as a potential invisible or the visible as a possible for another, rather, they are in a ceaseless activation that provides the possibility of dialectication within the existential flesh, which unfolds as an in-betweenness between visible-invisible. The body is simultaneously active and passive, as the visible body moves and activates its gaze, making available to its contact with the exterior, a piece of its interiority.

The gaze is the meeting of the visible and the invisible, for this reason they believed, since ancient times, that the face is the index of the soul (Vultus est index animi). The face becomes the mirror of the soul, and if the face is the mirror of the soul then there are people who have ugly souls, as Gustave Flaubert said⁶. Many perceive that the active intentionality of the face as part of the body shape projects their selfhood, their habits and actions, their truth, a fact which they cannot bear, which is why they unconsciously avoid facing their image in the mirror. The mirror functions as a reminder of Being, but also of becoming through the appearance that constitutes the reflection of personal life.

“No matter how many mirrors you look into, you cannot see your own gaze”⁷ , according to Lacan, meaning the surprise of the spontaneity of the gaze movement, but what happens when in the place of the mirror there is the portrait? When the fleeting movement of the gaze reflected in the mirror is permanently, irreversibly and statically captured in the portrait, constantly reminding the Becoming of the existence of the depicted, and at the same time the artist. The portraits express their own life which hides something fatal: the ambiguity of human existence. On the one hand the portrait, on the other the human existence and between them the life within which human existence soul and body is revealed. The portrait is the magic mirror that reveals the body and at the same time the soul, communicating human existence, since the work of art is not subject to the non-existence of mortality. The artist feels like a god, he created a creation that will remain in eternity, which is shaped through the body of the depicted, a mortal man, Dorian Gray, whose youth and beauty make the beauty of art special.

Dorian Gray is a young man whose strong, dynamic personality, full of life, is mirrored in his unparalleled beauty. Basil Hallward is the painter who created his portrait, who is disillusioned by Dorian’s beauty, to the point where a narcissistic relationship develops on both sides, through which the danger of beauty emerges. Basil as a creator experiences an artistic eroticism towards his work, expressing this artistic eroticism to Dorian. The creator is physically and mentally possessed by the form and personality of Dorian, who for the painter embodies the invisible ideal.

Basil is so passionate about the source of his inspiration that he tends to cling to Dorian, even identifying with him. During the development of the play, therefore, a kind of heteropathic identification (Scheler)⁸ of Basil with Dorian is observed, as there are moments when Basil’s Ego is subjugated and “swallowed” by Dorian’s Ego.⁹ On the other hand, Dorian clings to his image, feeling an invincible eroticism, not, however, for the creator who created the portrait, but for the form of himself. In this case the work of art as an image of the subject “swallows” the Ego of the subject in a paradoxical way, not making it weak, but hypertrophic. We could say that the image- body encloses the shape-body, strengthening the selfishness that turns into selfishness.

The portrait ensures immortality for both. Basil as the creator feels an unconquerable passion for the power of creation, which takes flesh and blood through the form of Dorian. Art as a condition of immortality is a critical stake, since the moment often conceals more than it reveals. The art reveals Dorian’s dazzling beauty, prompting him to discover for himself the underlying truth, the tragedy behind all that is beautiful. Dorian, of course, believed that his beauty would remain unchanged, after he sold his soul, with the consequence that the image – body and not the shape – body would age. Corporality, however, is inseparable, the image-body reflects the modalities of the shape-body, with the consequence that the weariness of death, in Dorian’s case, is punishment and not redemption, since the portrait would create terror by projecting what is not would he ever die, Dorian’s consciousness, the consciousness that would watch and judge him mercilessly through the canvas wearing away at his form. Who can bear the idea of ​​their soul coming to the surface as something disgusting..? Could it be that, in the end, the visibility of the soul is a fear, but at the same time an inner desire of everyone, so that they can change everything that happens in their soul?

“The gift of the image is that it provides you with a place to watch your soul”¹⁰, this formulation of psychologist James Hillman expresses the psychosomatic unity of human existence. The soul, for some is identified with the spirit, for others with consciousness, for others it does not exist in the sense of an independent entity, but only with the organic meaning of the brain, while for others it is revealed through and within the physicality. The soul as such is an immaterial entity, it is not experienced, it does not become visible, with the consequence that its entity is not confirmed. Oscar Wilde expresses these concerns in his story “The Fisherman and his Soul”, where the fisherman asks himself: “What does my soul need me for? Can I see her? Am I touching her? Do I even know her?’¹¹ In “The Picture of Dorian Gray” the look that confronts the image of the body evolves as an experience of the soul, the ages of existence, the modalities of familiarizing its Being through Dorian’s actions.

The portrait depicts the beauty and youth of Dorian, who feels absolute pleasure, since he does not admire another’s beauty, he does not try to assimilate the beauty of another form, but has the privilege of admiring his own beauty, feeling with him the way it has already conquered the very idea of ​​beauty. His beauty, however, will develop into the greatest risk that will bring him face to face with the consequences of his actions. Dorian believes that he has the privilege, like no one else, of being close to beauty, but he is deluding himself, because, due to his abominable actions and the reclusive life he leads, his distance from beauty is magnified, precisely because he cannot endure the closeness to his form which reveals all that he is or all that he has become.

The sense of his beauty overwhelmed him like a revelation, it was the first time he felt such admiration, as if he saw his own form in a mirror, and even more strongly, but the life he had created would destroy his body. At this point, a form of Cartesian approach is observed regarding the reflection of the soul’s passions in the body, which body, here, is not just a machine, but a revelation of beauty, which emerges as an experience of the visible-invisible chiasm.¹²

Dorian is seduced by the ideas of Lord Henry Wotton, who approached life with extreme cynicism, believing that humanity’s greatest fault is taking itself too seriously. Lord Henry sought the acquisition of experiences that offer temporary pleasures, as he believed that life is short and meaning lies in the immediacy of pleasures, as he characteristically states: “Sin is the only real colour- element left in modern life.”¹³ Henry treats sin as something natural inherent in human existence, a fundamental element in the creation of human civilization. He believed, therefore, that man is able to discover culture in two ways: one is through education, Henry finding here that the labor of the individual for education makes genius more lasting than beauty.¹⁴ The other way is the corruption that governs the multiplicity. In fact, for the Lord, corruption is formed in the person of man, for this very reason, from one point on in the story, it will be a threat to Dorian, because the Lord will seek to penetrate into the bowels of his soul, to face, a fact that terrifies Dorian, who does not want the erosion of the face of his soul to be revealed.

Lord Henry believed that only art has a soul, not man, unlike Dorian who believed that man has a soul, which is a terrible reality, you buy it, you sell it, you trade it, as he himself did to conquer eternal youth.¹⁵ Man, moreover, has the ability to perfect it or to poison it, as Dorian himself poisoned his soul.

Dorian believes that he discovers a genius in the person of Lord, a man who has discovered the secret of life. Dorian decides to put into practice the Lord’s perceptions of the supposed good life, in fact, he identifies with him, only in this case the identification is idiopathic (Scheler),¹⁶ that is, Henry’s Ego absorbs Dorian’s Ego, to the point that Dorian loses his identity. Dorian is drawn into a vicious circle of recluse life, initially mortally wounding his beloved Sibyl, influenced by Lord Henry’s view that love, like art, is a form of imitation, doubting its authenticity. Dorian behaves disrespectfully towards his beloved, whom he abandons. Unable to overcome her disappointment, the girl commits suicide.

The deeper Dorian entered the world of depravity, the more corroded the portrait, which, however, despite the corrosion and ugliness, still retained its resemblance to Dorian’s living form, reminding him every minute of who he was.

Dorian’s familiarity with insignificance and evil had the consequence of altering his perception of beauty, since there were moments when he faced evil as a method through which he would make visible the idea of ​​beauty,¹⁷ seeking it in conditions and situations that bring surface the human entity as a punctum caecum in the flow of spatiotemporal becoming. The secret of his youth which had once been never to feel what did not suit him had been superseded by all those vile experiences and vile feelings which had overwhelmed him and which are unbecoming of any human being.

His actions made visible the ugliness of his thoughts and desires, stigmatizing every part of his physicality. The ugliness, which he hated, had been written into his entire being, was now the only dead-end reality within which he exhausted his essence. The savagery of his actions, the hateful shelters, the violence and the vulgarity had sullied his lust for life, trapping him in a paranoid relationship with freedom, which he continued with perversion.

Dorian was trapped in a labyrinthine path of evil. He reaches a critical point where he can’t stand the voice of his conscience, he began to loathe the portrait, his very form externalized in his physical matter, as it glared at him with its menacing gaze, intent on punishing him, exuding a sense imminent death. Dorian projecting his distaste for the painting to Basil, the creator, is seduced and driven to the doomed act of murder.

Purification, Fall, and the Visibility of the Soul

This scene exudes a metaphysical feeling, concealing meanings about the relationship between man and God. Dorian symbolizes the human being, who in his incarnate form within the world, having free will, falls from the beauty of innocence to the ugliness of wickedness, consequently wanting to take revenge on his Creator, who, apart from condemning him limiting him to corruption, with the final result of irreversible death, he gave him free will, with the consequence that man is willingly “thrown” (Heidegger) into the world of depravity.

In an attempt to cover up the crime and get away, Dorian blackmails an old chemist friend, Alan Campbell, into helping him dispose of the corpse’s flesh. Campbell, unable to bear the burden of covering up this heinous act, kills himself.

Dorian Gray, now trapped in an endless cycle of death, unable to bear his consciousness that was constantly imprinting on him through the portrait, decides to destroy it, believing that in this way he would exorcise the past, that he would put an end to its monstrous turn of his soul, he would be freed from the remorse imposed on him by his horrible form in the portrait, and thus he would regain his beauty, reaching, at last, purification. What form does purification take? Is purification synonymous with beauty? Dorian Gray would answer the question in the most unpredictable and irreversible way. So he grabs the knife and stabs this portrait, then his scream is heard, followed by a deafening thud. Some passers-by who were passing by outside the house realized that something had happened and notified the police. The officers tried in vain to break into the house to get inside. When the servants later entered the room they saw on the wall the portrait that shone amazingly depicting Dorian’s youth and beauty as he had been before he drifted off into seclusion. On the floor lay a dead man, gruesomely aged, he was the present bodily identity of Dorian Gray.¹⁸

The innocence of the past prevailed over the wickedness of the present, restoring beauty to the portrait form, which returned to the immortality it deserved.¹⁹ Beauty penetrates and catalyzes chronological limitation, but also the very human existence that unfolds within it. Beauty challenges and invites human existence to undertake the stake of sculpting the visible-invisible, body-soul relationship, because only when man takes care of his physical dimension, is it preserved unchanged and the beauty of his existential statue is revealed. On the contrary, when man does not take care of one of the two, the unity between them is broken, with the consequence that the ugliness of depravity erodes his existence. Innocence reveals a priori beauty, while purification reveals beauty’s stake, the arduous struggle, the toil it must endure, as it appropriates freedom, taking responsibility for its actions.

The Lived Body in the 21^st Century: Beauty in the Age of AI

Through beauty emerges the joy that man exists, that he is in his body, a body not just a carnal machine, but a work of art that reveals the chiasm of visible-invisible, liberating the true dimension of beauty.

Human existence reveals the invisible, shaping the soul-body relationship through the actions and morals it acquires. In her face is imprinted the Appearance of Becoming, but also of Non-Being, which is waiting and is expressed through doubt, hesitation and uncertainty. This is precisely where the beauty of the human body lies in the free and effortless disclosure of feelings and thoughts, good and bad. The invisible is depicted effortlessly on the face, but also on the whole body, from the moment man turns his experiential gaze freely in any direction he wishes, focusing, every time, where he wants, at the moment he chooses, making visible aspects of his Being of.

The modalities of revealing the unseen through human existence are undergoing a rapid transformation due, of course, to the evolution of Artificial Intelligence and its products. The form of the eternity of the soul captured in the picture of Dorian Gray today is reduced to a level of digital eternity.²⁰ The figure of Dorian in the portrait revealed the visible-invisible chiasm, today this revelation occurs in cyberspace, and at the same time that the invisible is revealed through looks and expressions it is “captured” within the applications of Artificial Intelligence.

The use of images is fatally inscribed in the logic of a digital language of which we are not yet familiar. The subject becomes more and more a technical subject whose rights are constantly violated, without itself being aware or, even worse, consenting to this violation itself, as it submits itself to modes of directionality or governmentality of opinion and action.²¹ Human existence is subject to the diffusion of mass images without a distinct subject, originator, or creator, with the consequence of being unable to distinguish good from evil, whose forms are obscured or confused. The truth is revealed altered, it is shown in the way of concealment. The real is absent and the absolute is altered, from the moment body and face are “captured” or violated. A few months ago, consultations began in the European Parliament on the occasion of the AI ​​Act. Based on this bill, Artificial Intelligence tools are distinguished into high, medium and low risk category tools for society.²² According to this law, bans are provided for mass surveillance systems, but also for training algorithms with images without the consent of the imaged. In addition, image recognition systems will be more strictly controlled, as well as the algorithms that recommend content on the internet.

Is AI able to read and reveal emotions? To reveal good and evil? Is it able to make visible the free choice of gaze movement? Is it able to reveal the true beauty of the visible-invisible chiasm? The questions will multiply as AI evolves and as the digital image tends to capture the physical image of the lived body. However, even within cyberspace, the lived body manages to transcend the restrictive digitality, as it embodies life, the lived presence , within a reality of digital ab-sence.

1. Όσκαρ Γουάιλντ, Το Πορτρέτο του Ντόριαν Γκρέι, (μτφρ. Θανάσης Οργανόπουλος), εκδ. Καρακώτσογλου, Αθήνα, 2020, chapter 8, p. 164. ↩︎
2. Galen A. Johnson (edit.), Michael B. Smith (translation editor), The Merleau Ponty aesthetics reader: Philosophy and Painting, ©1993 by Northwestern University Press, (printed in the USA), https://www.google.gr/books/edition/The_Merleau_Ponty_Aesthetics_Reader/7ivZpaZOkHYC?hl=el&gbpv=1. (26/1/2024). ↩︎
3. https://best-quotations.com/catquotes.php?categ=522. ↩︎
4. https://www.gnomikologikon.gr/catquotes.php? ↩︎
5. Max Scheler, Φύση και Μορφές της Συμπάθειας. Συμβολή στη μελέτη των νόμων της θυμικής ζωής (Natureetformesdelasympathie. Contribution à l’ etude de lois de la vie émotionnelle, Payot, Paris 1928), (μτφρ. Κωστής Παπαγιώργης), εκδ. Καστανιώτη Α. Ε., Αθήνα, 2002, έτος 1^ης έκδοσης 2003, chapter 2, p. 38. ↩︎
6. Max Scheler, The nature of sympathy, Taylor & Francis group, 2017. Ανακτήθηκαν από: https://www.google.gr/books/edition/The_Nature_of_Sympathy/6pcuDwAAQBAJ?hl=el&gbpv=1&dq=max+scheler+the+mature+of+empathy&printsec=frontcover , Chapter 4, (26/1/2024). ↩︎
7. https://www.gnomikologikon.gr/catquotes.php?categ=0555. ↩︎
8. Όσκαρ Ουάιλντ, Ο Ψαράς και η Ψυχή του, (μτφρ. Κωνσταντίνος Τρικογλίδης), εκδ. Δαιδάλεος, Θεσσαλονίκη, α’ έκδοση 2017, p. 16. ↩︎
9. Σωκράτης Δεληβογιατζής, Ζητήματα Διαλεκτικής, εκδ. Ερωδιός (4^η έκδοση), chapter II. ↩︎
10. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray (The original 1890 Uncensored Edition+ The Expanded and Revised 1891 Edition), © e-artnow, 2013, chapter 2, https://www.google.gr/books/edition/The_Picture_of_Dorian_Gray_The_Original/pO5BBAAAQBAJ?hl=el&gbpv=1&dq=oscar+wilde+dorian+gray+the+original+1890&printsec=frontcover. ↩︎
11. Όσκαρ Γουάιλντ, Το Πορτρέτο του Ντόριαν Γκρέι, (μτφρ. Θανάσης Οργανόπουλος), εκδ. Καρακώτσογλου, Αθήνα, 2020, chapter 19, p. 354. ↩︎
12. Όσκαρ Γουάιλντ, Το Πορτρέτο του Ντόριαν Γκρέι, (μτφρ. Θανάσης Οργανόπουλος), εκδ. Καρακώτσογλου, Αθήνα, 2020, chapter 19, p. 363. ↩︎
13. Max Scheler, The nature of sympathy, Taylor & Francis group, 2017. Ανακτήθηκαν από: https://www.google.gr/books/edition/The_Nature_of_Sympathy/6pcuDwAAQBAJ?hl=el&gbpv=1&dq=max+scheler+the+mature+of+empathy&printsec=frontcover , Chapter 4, (26/1/2024). ↩︎
14. Όσκαρ Γουάιλντ, Το Πορτρέτο του Ντόριαν Γκρέι, (μτφρ. Θανάσης Οργανόπουλος), εκδ. Καρακώτσογλου, Αθήνα, 2020, chapter 11, p. 249. ↩︎
15. Όσκαρ Γουάιλντ, Το Πορτρέτο του Ντόριαν Γκρέι, (μτφρ. Θανάσης Οργανόπουλος), εκδ. Καρακώτσογλου, Αθήνα, 2020, chapter 20, pp. 377-378. ↩︎
16. Oscar Wilde’s response to critics of his work “ The Picture of Dorian Gray”: “Leave my book to the immortality that it deserves”. ↩︎
17. Όσκαρ Γουάιλντ, Το Πορτρέτο του Ντόριαν Γκρέι, (μτφρ. Θανάσης Οργανόπουλος), εκδ. Καρακώτσογλου, Αθήνα, 2020, chapter 8, p. 164. ↩︎
18. Όσκαρ Γουάιλντ, Το Πορτρέτο του Ντόριαν Γκρέι, (μτφρ. Θανάσης Οργανόπουλος), εκδ. Καρακώτσογλου, Αθήνα, 2020, chapter 20, pp. 377-378. ↩︎
19. Oscar Wilde’s response to critics of his work “ The Picture of Dorian Gray”: “Leave my book to the immortality that it deserves”. ↩︎
20. Hans Belting, An Anthropology of Images, ( 1^st published in Germany under the title Bild- Anthropologie : Entwürfe für eine Bildwissenschaft, ©2001 by Verlag Wilhelm Fink, Munich), translated into English by: Thomas Dunlap, ©2011 by Princeton University Press. ↩︎
21. Σωκράτης Δεληβογιατζής, Ζητήματα Διαλεκτικής, εκδ. Ερωδιός (4^η έκδοση), chapter, X, pp. 296-301. ↩︎
22. «Νόμος ΑΙ: Το ευρωκοινοβούλιο ζητά να μπει φρένο στην αναγνώριση προσώπων και την προληπτική αστυνόμευση» (2023) , retrieved from: in.gr , https://www.in.gr/2023/05/11/in-science/technology/nomos-ai-eyrokoinovoulio-zita-na-mpei-freno-stin-anagnorisi-prosopon-kai-tin-proliptiki-astynomeysi/. (27/1/2024). ↩︎

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ancient Greek Philosophy

• Πλάτων, (Plato) Φαίδρος (Phaedrus), (Μελέτη, Μετάφραση, Σχόλια: Παναγιώτης Δόικος), εκδ. Ζήτρος, Θεσσαλονίκη, 2001.

Modern Greek Philosophy

• Δεληβογιατζής, Σ., Ζητήματα Διαλεκτικής, εκδ. Ερωδιός (4^η έκδοση), Θεσσαλονίκη, 2010.

Translated

• Belting, H., Dilly, H., Kemp, W., Sauerländer, W., Warnke, M., (edit.), Εισαγωγή στην Ιστορία της Τέχνης (Kunstgeschichte: Eine Einführung, 1^st published: Berlin: Reimer, 1985), (translated into greek by: Λ. Γυιόκα), Μ. Παπανικολάου (επιμ.), ελληνική έκδοση: ©Βάνιας , Θεσσαλονίκη, 1995

• Eco, U.- Fedriga, R. η ιστορία της φιλοσοφίας, τόμ. 5, (μτφρ. Ελένη Τουλούπη), εκδ. Ελληνικά Γράμματα, 2018, εκδ. Πεδίο (γι’ αυτήν την έκδ. ΑΛΤΕΡ ΕΓΚΟ Α.Ε., Αθήνα 2018), (Storia della Filosofia, 2014, by EM Publishers, srl, Milano).

• Γουάιλντ, Ό. (Οscar Wilde, O.) Το Πορτρέτο του Ντόριαν Γκρέι, (μτφρ. Θανάσης Οργανόπουλος), εκδ. Καρακώτσογλου, Αθήνα, 2020.

• Ουάιλντ, Ό. ( Wilde, O.) Ο Ψαράς και η Ψυχή του, (μτφρ. Κωνσταντίνος Τρικογλίδης), εκδ. Δαιδάλεος, Θεσσαλονίκη, α’ έκδοση 2017.

• Ουάιλντ, Πόε, Η Φιλοσοφία της Ένδυσης και της Επίπλωσης, ( Wilde, Poe, The Philosophy of Dress [1885]. The Philosophy of Furniture [1840])Σειρά: De Natura Hominis [3], (μτφρ. Λαμπριάνα Οικονόμου), εκδ. Κοβάλτιο, Αθήνα 2019.

• Ponty, M.M. Φαινομενολογία της Αντίληψης, ( Phenomenologie de la perceotion), (μτφρ. Κική Καψαμπέλη), εκδ. Νήσος, 2016, Αθήνα ( Gallimard, 1945).

• Scheler, M., Φύση και Μορφές της Συμπάθειας. Συμβολή στη μελέτη των νόμων της θυμικής ζωής (Nature et formesde la sympathie. Contribution à l’ etude de lois de la vie émotionnelle, Payot, Paris 1928), (μτφρ. Κωστής Παπαγιώργης), εκδ. Καστανιώτη Α. Ε., Αθήνα, 2002, έτος 1^ης έκδοσης 2003.

Foreign Language Bibliography

• Belting, H., An Anthropology of Images, ( 1^st published in Germany under the title Bild- Anthropologie : Entwürfe für eine Bildwissenschaft, ©2001 by Verlag Wilhelm Fink, Munich), translated into English by: Thomas Dunlap, ©2011 by Princeton University Press, https://www.google.gr/books/edition/An_Anthropology_of_Images/xUZpEAAAQBAJ?hl=el&gbpv=1&dq=an+anthropology+of+images&printsec=frontcover. (26/1/2024).

• Bӧhme, G. , The Aesthetics of Atmospheres, Edited by Jean – Paul Thibaud, 1^st published 2017 by Routledge Taylor & Francis Group London and New York, p. 64 [ Notes: 25. Gernot Bӧhme, “Das Glück, da zu sein”, in R. J Kozljanič (ed.), II. Jahrbuch für Lebensphilosophie, Munich, Albunca Verlag, 2006, pp. 209-18. Also in Renate Breuninger (ed.), Glück , Ulm, Humboldt Studienzentrum, 2006, pp. 57-69]. https://www.google.gr/books/edition/The_Aesthetics_of_Atmospheres/JCglDwAAQBAJ?hl=el&gbpv=1 (25/1/2024).

• Johnson A. G., (edit.), Smith B., M., (translation editor), The Merleau Ponty aesthetics reader: Philosophy and Painting, ©1993 by Northwestern University Press, (printed in the USA), https://www.google.gr/books/edition/The_Merleau_Ponty_Aesthetics_Reader/7ivZpaZOkHYC?hl=el&gbpv=1. (26/1/2024).

• Knaup, Unity of Body and Soul or Mind- Brain Being. Towards a Paradigm shift in Modern Concepts of Personhood, J. B. Metzler , Stuttgart, 2018.

• Scheler, M., The nature of sympathy, Taylor & Francis group, 2017. Ανακτήθηκαν από: https://www.google.gr/books/edition/The_Nature_of_Sympathy/6pcuDwAAQBAJ?hl=el&gbpv=1&dq=max+scheler+the+mature+of+empathy&printsec=frontcover , Chapter 4, (26/1/2024).

OTHER SOURCES

• «Νόμος ΑΙ: Το ευρωκοινοβούλιο ζητά να μπει φρένο στην αναγνώριση προσώπων και την προληπτική αστυνόμευση» (2023) , retrieved from: in.gr , https://www.in.gr/2023/05/11/in-science/technology/nomos-ai-eyrokoinovoulio-zita-na-mpei-freno-stin-anagnorisi-prosopon-kai-tin-proliptiki-astynomeysi/. (27/1/2024).