Angel With Lute

I had a poster of this painting on my wall when I was a teenager.

I remember a friend of mine coming over to visit me. I felt this friend was quite a bit cooler than me, because she was older, had multi-coloured dreadlocks and wore very tiny shorts.

She was in my room, and for some reason I felt embarrassed about the Angel With Lute poster, and so I made a disparaging joke about it.

'Why?' she said. 'I think it's lovely.'

And I remember feeling a bit taken aback. In the same moment, I was impressed that she liked the painting, and I was impressed with myself for having something I didn't realise was 'cool' on my wall. It was a lesson in learning to trust my own judgement.

An interesting thing about art is that it can reveal aspects of people - including yourself - that you didn't know. 

I recently found this poster while helping my dad clear out his attic. I'm going to put it up again. 

Pearl

Angel With Lute by Rosso Forentino