The Son Of Man

Magritte played such intellectual games. I would say the implications were clearly what the artist was trying to evoke. But if you can come up with other interpretations Magritte would have been equally happy.

I saw his work in a MoMA show winter of 2015. His work in person is flat. Maybe he meant that as part of the surrealism. But it was a limiting factor in his technique more so. He was very weak with perspectives.

The apple might be a reference to "the original sin" - you know - hanky panky in the garden.

About the painting Son Of Man, a self portrait, Magritte said:

"At least it hides the face partly. Well, so you have the apparent face, the apple,
hiding the visible but hidden, the face of the person. It's something that happens constantly.
Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see.
There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us.
This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say,
between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present."

His eyes are visible, seen peeking over the edge of the apple.
Another subtle feature is that the man's left arm appears to bend backward at the elbow.