"I am not one who was born in the custody of wisdom. I am one who is fond of olden times and intense in quest of the sacred knowing of the ancients." Gustave Courbet

03 November 2022

Alive.

Carracci, Head of a Woman, 1600


Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl.  An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become.  A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be.  But a great artist - a master - can look at an old woman, portray her exactly as she is and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be and more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo, see that this lovely young girl is still alive, not old and ugly at all, but simply prisoned inside her ruined body. He can make you feel the quiet, endless tragedy that there was never a girl born who ever grew older than eighteen in her heart no matter what the merciless hours have done to her. 

Robert A. Heinlein

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