Resemblance, Doubt, and Ruin

. . . a naked young woman looks frankly at the beholder; her chestnut tresses fall over her shoulders; her nipples are erect; with her left hand she only half covers her pudenda—she almost toys with them—while the shadow around them suggests (if it does not actually indicate) her pubic hair. She is completely naked except for the ring on her little finger and the bracelet around her wrist. The sensuality of the representation would have been plain to many and may well continue to be so.¹ 1 - David Freedberg, The Power of Images: Studies in the History and Theory of Response (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1989), 17.

Out of curiosity, a bystander asks the art historian, “Can we say that an image resembles reality?”

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