The absent face

An original fiction passage set in the nineteenth century.

For six weeks, Marian had worked upon the paintings in the old chapel. Damp had loosened the lower plaster, but most of the figures could still be followed beneath the stains. Only the face of the central figure had almost entirely disappeared. The patron was expected on Friday, and Marian knew that a finished wall might earn her a commission of her own. Her master was ill at home. The decision had been left to her.

A curve of cheek and the corner of one dark eye remained. Marian mixed a fresh colour and supplied the missing mouth. The patron had asked for an expression that would welcome visitors, so she gave it the beginning of a smile. At dusk, however, the new mouth seemed to float upon the old plaster, bright and certain. Around it, the surviving figures lowered their grave faces towards something time had removed.

Marian climbed the scaffold again. Before the paint had dried, she wiped away the smile, then the chin she had shaped beneath it. When the patron arrived the next morning, he stared at the pale space enclosed by the remaining fragments. “You have left me an unfinished wall,” he said. Marian explained that she could restore what survived, but she could not discover an expression from an empty surface. He reminded her that another commission depended upon the success of this one.

Her master returned several days later. He examined the wall closely, first from the floor and then from the scaffold, but offered Marian neither praise nor blame. Morning light entered the high windows. It showed the damage plainly, yet it also brought out the small, original curve beside the eye. Visitors would see an absence where the patron had expected a face. The wall had not been made whole, but neither had it been made to remember what it had forgotten.

“Marian’s decision to leave part of the painting unrestored is presented as a form of achievement rather than failure.”

Evaluate how successfully the writer presents this idea. Support your judgement with detailed references to the passage.