"Wrote another contribution to my N.T. Guide. I sold 120 books for £6 to a shop in the Fulham Road, which I happened to pass by; and finished reading Coryat's Crudities. Also went to the National Gallery to see the pictures which have been recently cleaned. The exhibition is the ultimate vindication of cleaning. I do not think any reasonable man could still object to it being done by an expert with the scientific care that the Gallery undoubtedly takes. I am inclined to think that the photographs taken after cleaning make the originals look more scraped and chalky than in fact they do. I reached this conclusion after comparing the detailed photograph of a satyr's face in Rubens's Silenus with the painted face on the canvas." Saturday, 8th November
Caves of Ice James Lees-Milne
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