From Nerval's "Diorama"


     The only criticism one might level at Monsieur Bouton is that he has made his human figures too large, especially in the final tableau. Man amounts to so little on earth that it is impossible to paint a horizon of any expanse whatsoever without having to turn him into a microscopic entity. 'How fortunate you are to be a poet,' said the painter David to Baour-Lormian one day. 'If you want to depict a love scene in the Alps, you come up with twenty pages of lovers, twenty pages of mountains and the whole thing fits together quite nicely. If I, by contrast, want to do a painting on the same theme, either my lovers will be enormous and my Alps minuscule, or my Alps will be gigantic and my lovers no taller than this' -- and he pointed to his little finger.

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