The Faceless Knight

O what can ail thee, knight-at-arms, 

       Alone and palely loitering? 

The sedge has withered from the lake, 

       And no birds sing. 

“La Belle Dame sans Merci” by John Keats
Faceless Knight 1©HelenBushe
Faceless Knight 2©HelenBushe
Faceless Knight 4©HelenBushe
Faceless Knight 3©HelenBushe

This statue is in the park at the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester.

The plaque showing information about it had fallen off or been removed, so it remains a mystery.

4 thoughts on “The Faceless Knight

  1. No matter how impressed I am by this statue and your photos, there is this uneasiness, stemming from a passage from a book by Simmel, if I’m correct, in which two patients at a face-reconstruction clinic are in love with the same woman and they decide that the one to keep her would be the one whose face was more grotesque. The two masks come off. The face of the first is a complete mess, with holes and bumps where they shouldn’t be. The face of the other is your knight. Flat iron. Here is the answer to your mystery. He won.

    Liked by 1 person

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