It is also specific to its time and place,
The uncorroding detail of vicinity.
These burghers and bystanders are our cousins,
But unlike us are not encoded to accept
Adjacence as the only adjunct of Affinity.

The horror has to show itself: a grin
Is the keyboard of Sensation.
Technicians are consulting their circuit-boards –
Knives gripped between their teeth, the torturers
Are unwrapping the skin of Incarnation.

Gerard David, Bruges’ Master Painter,
Enters a plea of Authenticity
Making redundant any further Judgment,
Any yet in seeing simply what he sees
Confronts Intelligence with its Complicity.