"When in Oxford, in Liverpool, in Manchester, in Birmingham I found myself in front of Holman Hunt, I had to tell myself that the unsurpassable had been overcome; that no one, neither ancient nor modern, not Van Eyck, not Holbein, not Brown, not Millais, had descended so deeply into the fibers of reality, had loved it with more unfailing enthusiasm, had rendered it with more extraordinary effort. (Enrico Thovez)"