Once There Was, Once There Wasn't....

The Reading, Vittorio Reggianini, 19th century. I can’t help but wonder—what was the book he was reading that so mesmerised these women? What were the other two books put aside? And then there is a brilliant detail, a contrast that one doesn’t notice immediately: the expression of the wolf, scowling, as if to say that beneath this veneer of polished ele…