Contempt
Cold Regard
Downward evaluation. The asymmetric withdrawal of regard, in which the other is placed below, never opposed. Anger engages its object. Contempt has finished with it.
The word
Latin contemnere, to scorn: an intensifier fixed to temnere, to slight. The word has always meant regarding from above. Darwin noted its facial signature, and later researchers described it as the one expression that shows on a single side of the face: half the mouth, engaged in dismissing.
The feeling
Cold, and strangely comfortable. The other person gets filed: placed below, at a distance where their actions no longer require a response. Time is unhurried, the pulse stays level, and there is a small warmth of self-elevation folded in, which is what makes the state hard to give up. It is anger with the engagement removed.
Against its neighbours
Anger still takes its object seriously enough to push against it; contempt has finished taking it seriously. Disgust recoils from contamination; contempt does not bother to recoil, it looks down and files.
In the work
The subject is present and not centred. The gaze inside the piece is directed past it, and the framing agrees.
No work carries Contempt yet. The element is named and the table is not finished.