Beauty is a tragic force. Paganism sees it as the joy of life. To me it represents sadness. The Renaissance placed the intensity of artistic pleasure above all else. What an aberration, my friend! The ancients left lovely sculptures of animals, innocent lambs, noble horses and placid cows. After visiting the fauna kept in the Vatican Museum one’s soul feels light, as if it had been bathed in purity. The artists who created such beautiful sculptures did not intend to take things out of their place nor act excessively on our sensitivities. They were indeed true classicists. Unrest and sin begin with the exaltation of humanism. It has been said that art ennobles everything, but the more artistic it is, the more delicate the representation of feminine beauty, the more intensely it will address the senses of man. A kind, modest woman, appropriately dressed, even though dangerous, can also offer something pure and comforting. Venus, the deified woman, is sacrilegious. Those who insist that art is always pure are either hypocritical or rhetoricians with no sensitivity. Art is sometimes intoxicating. The temptations of Saint Anthony by Pafnuci are full of beauty; Lucifer was beautiful.
Xima looked stunning. She was wearing a deep green coat and a feather hat. Her appearance was that of a porcelain figure painted with the most delicate and artful colours. Her eyes had a mysterious depth to them; her mouth was exquisite. Despite my trepidation, I realized she resembled the Senyor, who was thought of as ugly. Years later, the Senyora, who had begun to lose her senses and decline, assured me that Dona Xima resembled me. Mysteries of the human mind.