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From the expression on my face she could see that her portrait wasn't the one I wished to begin my career with.

"I know I'm homely", she said, "but I'll tell you this, when you're able to look deep enough inside of me, and find what is beautiful there, you'll be able to fill that paper".

From a completely objective viewpoint this woman was not good looking and she herself was afraid I would only see her external features.  In her own way, her expectations of art were greater than mine at the time.  She knew, for instance, that the true qualities of character and of beauty go far beyond the surface aspects, just as you engineers, scientists, and technologists know that the beauty of much of your work lies in its inner structure, rather than its surface.

In this connection, let me cite another example from the career of Leonardo.  Since the image is so well known, consider the mysterious and intriguing portrait known as the "Mona Lisa".  This masterpiece is not so much a likeness as it is the fabric of Leonardo's humanism and imagination.  For we are amazed by the way Leonardo merges in this portrait the reality of his sitter with a [[strikethrough]] [[?]] [[/strikethrough]] unique spiritual aspiration.  So the transcendent beauty of the lady has to do with the beauty of Leonardo' character, even more than it does the classic features of his sitter.

Whereas Leonardo, and other artists of the past, painted the nobility, the wealthy and the powerful, it was technology that helped change all this.  With the development of the camera, the average person who wanted to record a faithful likeness could have it for a modest price.  The camera, besides brining a democratic service to the art of portraiture, also forced artists to consider the more abiding function of their craft.  Despite many stylistic differences, I think most artists will agree that their value is not in merely rendering a faithful copy of