The Virgin and Child -- Workshop of Albrecht Dürer

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‘Well it’s not quite what I expected, I must say. I asked for a ruin in a garden, not a building site in a piece of wasteland.

‘I’m not so sure about the iris. I didn’t ask for that, but the artist (not the man himself, one of his assistants) said it was very fashionable.

‘Our Lady is pretty enough – her hair is a marvel. Perhaps the man himself, you know, helped whoever painted it.

‘I’m going to save up and have the man himself to do the landscape through the arch. And perhaps I’ll have him put some carving on the stones – make them look a bit more classical.

‘But I’m glad I got a look at it before it was finished. I actually asked him to put in that cloak to hide the wall. It’s just planks and stakes – see what I mean about the building site? So that cloak was my idea. It does make me feel as if the painting is really mine.’