Phantom 

James Ensor rendered this drawing titled "Phantom" using graphite on paper. Here, we are confronted with a specter, a ghostly figure emerging from a dense field of frantic lines and scribbled text. This haunting image evokes the 'danse macabre', a medieval allegory of death's inevitability, where skeletons or ghoulish figures lead the living in a dance towards the grave. Consider the way Ensor constructs this figure from chaotic, swirling lines, a technique reminiscent of the "horror vacui" – the fear of empty space seen in ancient art, where every inch is filled with imagery. This terror of emptiness, it seems, mirrors our own fear of mortality, of being forgotten, of fading into nothingness. The Phantom is a potent reminder of the cyclical nature of human experience. A symbol that constantly returns, reborn and reinterpreted across time and cultures.