[AnAmericanMother]

But you do like the "Magdalen Tower", don't you? The sky is a tour de force. (I guess you might extend your strictures on cherubs to choirboys, though?)

[Rembrandt_fan]

You wrote, "The sky is a tour de force."

I think of the sky in that painting as a sort of Rococo homage--Bouchard did it better. But that's just it, too: the way the Pre-Raphaelites portrayed themselves, as a more honest, less idealized bunch, as opposed to the work they actually produced: heavy handed symbolism, blunt club moralizing, full of clutter and colorful noise. I qualify criticism of the Rococo school--Watteau has few peers in either draftsmanship or sheer artistic flair--but I can find little or no saving grace or Watteau-like genius among the PR crowd.

So yeah, nice sky. (he admitted grudgingly.)