Caravaggio St. John the Baptist painting

Caravaggio St. John the Baptist paintingAndrea Mantegna Virgin and child with the Magdalen and St John the Baptist paintingAndrea Mantegna The Adoration of the Shepherds painting
without noise," and thereupon he began some squealing of his own, for reasons, it is to be presumed, of pleasure rather than pain. -- And the grocer, Musa, confessed to another of The Curtain's horizontal staff that the old habits were hard to break, and when he was sure nobody was listening he still said a prayer or two to ", Manat, and sometimes, what to do, Al-Lat as well; you can't beat a female goddess, they've got attributes the boys can't match," after which he, too, fell upon the earthly imitations of these attributes with a will. So it was that faded, fading Baal learned in his bitterness that no imperium is absolute, no victory complete. And, slowly, the criticisms of Mahound began.
Baal had begun to change. The news of the destruction of the great temple of Al-Lat at Taif, which came to his ears punctuated by the grunts of the covert pig-sticker Ibrahim, had plunged him into a deep sadness, because even