What is the subject of the painting? his wife has written on the postcard’s reverse. Who is looking at whom? The painter at the king and queen; the king and queen at themselves in a mirror; the viewer at the king and queen in the mirror; the viewer at the painter; the painter at the viewer, the viewer at the princess, the viewer at the ladies-in-waiting? Welcome to the labyrinth of mirrors that is human life. Is your wife always so obsessed with petty small-talk? Pietro asks. And Shaun replies: I’m telling you, it’s relentless. Pietro stares for a while at the painting, and a while longer,
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