"He was more tolerable than most. I think you might have liked him. He definitely would have enjoyed painting you. He loved plum women, elegance, and sensuality. You fit two of these three qualities, not bad."

For a moment, the way Armand smiles makes his fangs a little bit more visible than usual. He's in a good mood, and he means what he told Ganymede as praise.

"Ruben also had the talent to paint people as people: women with curves or double chins, men with wrinkles or messy beards if that's what their bodies looked like. Sure, his paintings were also idealized, but when I looked at them, I could still see myself as a person, not just a thing."

And that's why he still enjoys Rubens's art these days. They only have two or three paintings of him in the Metropolitan, but Armand now feels the urge to go seek them and look at them for a while. He doesn't, as to not leave the present company, of course.

"Ah, I see. Such is life." Love, honest one, is such a rare thing for them. The longer they live, the faster it seems to slip between their fingers. "That's good to know. It's such a rare thing. Did you ever got to meet
Lisa Gherardini, by any chance?"