“It was eleven o’clock in the morning when Mariano Renovales approached the Prado Museum. Several years have passed since the famous artist was here last time. It was not the dead that attracted him here. They were, of course, very interesting and worthy of respect under the glorious crown of many centuries, but art was now moving along new paths; Renovales could not learn here from the dead, under the light from the glass ceiling, looking at reality through the eyes of people with a different temperament than his. A patch of sea, a corner on a mountainside, a group of ragged people, an expressive head attracted Renovales more than this palace with wide staircases, white columns and statues of bronze and alabaster - a majestic pantheon of art, where young artists constantly experienced the pangs of hesitation, being in a state of the most barren indecision and not knowing which path to choose..."The work is given in the pre-reform alphabet.