The course of a person’s life, like the course of a river, may likewise be changed by means of ingenious and timely precautions.

Manet nonetheless seems to have been captivated by her appearance, or at least by the visual possibilities of dressing her in exotic costumes and placing her in beguiling poses.

Such artistic forays into the countryside had been made easier by the invention, in 1824, of metal tubes for oil paints, which replaced the messy and awkward pig bladders in which artists of previous generations had kept their paints; and by the introduction of collapsible three-legged stools and portable easels, both of which could be carried into the countryside by the artist.18.

The hand gestures of Italians are not, apparently, as clear-cut as Goethe believed. De Jorio discovered that knowing the purpose of someone’s mind.

There was nothing so dangerous to a king or an emperor as a book. Yes, a great library – a library as magnificent as this one – was a dangerous arsenal, one that kings and emperors feared more than the greatest army or magazine.

Meissonier always spent many months researching his subject, finding out, for example, the precise sort of coats or breeches worn at the court of Louis XV, then hunting for them in rag fairs and market stalls or, failing that, having them specially sewn by tailors.

Undoubtedly Italians use hand gestures and body language more creatively and prolifically than other European cultures.

The word nepotism comes, in fact, from nipote, Italian for nephew.

Many of these omnibuses were driven, oddly enough, by male models who had retired from the business, which meant that Parisians of Manet’s day were transported around the city by men who had once posed as valiant biblical heroes or the vindictive deities of classical mythology.

The Prince to a slightly more upbeat view of human action. In order “not to rule out our free will,” he arrives at a formula by which Fortune is “the arbiter of half the things we do, leaving the other half or so to be controlled by ourselves.