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further exponents of the ease with which one can fall into the temptation of the pleasures of the flesh. Titian puts this behaviour on display on The Bacchanal of the Andrians (1523) or the copy made by Rubens a century later. In François Rabelais’s series of fantastical novels/short stories about the grotesque (mis)adventures of two giants, a father and son (Gargantua and Pantagruel, respectively), gluttony is one of the main expressions of Rabelais mocking for comic effect. In the 19 th century Gustave Doré illustrated the stories with consummate skill. Wrath Often confused with rage. As I understand it, rage is an elementary emotion unconditioned by cultural education. It appears suddenly and is useful to marking limits to third parties. Wrath is a secondary emotion that carries with it the desire to hurt with prejudice and depends superficially on beliefs. Contained rage is emotional management. Contained wrath is a result of cultural expression. Now, virtue: patience is considered another active part of the individual. The person who is irritable, irascible, intolerant, rash and impatient is punished by a society that has chosen kinder acts. Wrath, even justified, is not accepted as a defensive resource as it was in other times. Let us remember the famous wrath of God before the scorning of his doctrines – as ‘holy and justified’ as it may be, it was just wrath. The Old Testament is full of examples of it and artists reflected it on numerous occasions such as José Zorrilla’s poem The Wrath of God , Dante’s Divine Comedy as represented by Delacroix (1822) and by Adolph Bouguerau (1850). Even the laws that justify vengeance as a legal resource against moral offence were not easily accepted by our modern society. For this reason, wrath as an artistic theme is viable, but patience is more contemporary. According to Binsfeld its demon is Amon or Aamon, represented by a wolf with a snake’s tail that breathes fire, a man with a crow’s head and a dog’s teeth, or more simply, as a man with a crow’s head. When wrath goes beyond its function as a warning for third-party attacks, it can lead to such violent behaviour as committing fatal acts like murder. Let bondad, es decir, hacer actos por amor desinteresadamente, alcanzamos el modelo a seguir en los círculos avanzados de las tendencias del momento. Hacer ejercicio, procurar la salud propia y la del entorno, solidarizarse con los necesitados – caridad, filantropía–, ser partícipe del desarrollo sostenible, entre otras acciones, implica ser diligente y combatir la pereza, tedio, inacción, acidia o, simplemente, vagancia. Es ser un individuo moderno o clásico, según se mire. Salir de la imagen repetitiva del sofá que nos ha invadido en la pintura del pop art o del nuevo realismo e incorporar el dinamismo imperante, no es mala elección de tema a representar. Repetir personajes cómicos como Homer de Los Simpsons, Gardfield o Nobita de Doraemon como ejemplos de pereza está pasado de moda, ya no es tendencia, nos distrae como entretenimiento, pero no es tema artístico. Muchos artistas han manifestado la pereza en sus obras. Además de los ya nombrados como Bosco, Brueghel, Pencz o Callot hay que referenciar otros que incluso han utilizado parábolas bíblicas para ilustrarla, como la del trigo y la cizaña. Cuenta que mientras el campesino dormía en horas de trabajo, el vecino, en lugar de trigo, sembró en sus tierras, cizaña. Abraham Bloemaert (1564-1651), pintor barroco holandés, nos la representa magistralmente e incorpora la imagen de un demonio en ella. También en la parábola de los Talentos hay referencia explícita acerca de la pereza cuando el amo reprende al siervo miedoso y perezoso por no sacar provecho del talento que él le entregó antes de partir de viaje. Sin embargo la diligencia, como virtud, ha sido escasamente Rafael Sanzio. El triunfo de Galatea/ Galathea’s triomph , 1511. Villa Farnesina, Roma. Peter Paul Rubens. Sileno ebrio/ The drunken Silenus , 1620. National Gallery, Londres. 114