ABSTRACT
Conceived with enlightened 'reference to the universe' rather than idolatrous 'reference to man', what the baroque calls truth, the Naked Lady of scientific as well as artistic or allegorical desire, proves at best approximation-the vestige or trace, the image or sign, of something that by its very nature escapes. Truth itself is never so poignantly near as in those Susanna-like moments of ironic self-possession where its personified embodiments look back in token of their enigmatic remoteness.
