Buried below all which came after they lay, still existent in some nebulous manner but hidden and changed and forgotten, like the tiny little child’s bones which were once, and in some way continue to be, inside all of us. Beneath the surface is a second face, the rejected or reformed one which was actually the first. The first face, the first gesture, the first straining motions toward harmony and beauty; The first chase after that most wily wild-goose. Though willfully obscured and subsumed within what’s judged more glorious, these presences haunt their old corporeal boundaries still. In just the right light you can see them appear like apparitions.
Apparitions
The art-historical term for partial changes or corrections (as opposed to plain reuse of the board or canvas) is pentimento (repentance in Italian).
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@Michelangelo: Thanks. That little nugget of knowledge sure would have made searching out these images easier. Now I know.
Don’t forget the portrait of the Brontes, from which Branwell’s image was obscured, only to re-emerge as the covering paint aged over time.