"Old paint on canvas, as it ages,

sometimes becomes transparent.

When that happens it is possible,

in some pictures, to see the

original lines: a tree will show

through a woman's dress, a child

makes way for a dog, a large boat

is no longer on an open sea.

That is called pentimento

because the painter

repented', changed his mind.

Perhaps it would be as well to

say that the old conception,

replaced by a later choice, is a

way of seeing and then seeing

again."

• Lillian Hellman, Pentimento