Onto whose face did she gaze: her lover or kin, her faithful or subjects? Why was she so adorned: to accentuate her power; sacred, secular, or sensual? And what is felt underneath her gaze: the resignation of a concubine, the confidence of a queen, the dedication of a bride, the ambivalence of a goddess? If her stone expression as it is now in her immortal state captivates her onlookers, her gaze as it was in real life, resplendent in gold, must have conquered hearts and wills with one sight.
Our Lady of Elche, the eternal matriarch of Iberian culture, reposes in the National Museum of Archaeology, Madrid.
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