Summary

At the beginning of "Man as the Measure of All Things", Evelyn Skinner and Margaret someone drank wine and watched the Allied planes and swifts fly overhead. Evelyn was tired of Margaret someone’s company and was relieved when her tiresome companion retired for the evening. She walked down to the road and was elated when a British soldier, Ulysses Temper, traversed her path. Evelyn explained that she was an art historian, who was in Italy to recover paintings that had been “sequestered around the hills” (15). They travelled to the military outpost together and shared a glass of wine with Captain Darnley. The captain showed the art historian Pontormo’s Deposition from the Cross and they discussed art, beauty, and grief.

In East London, Peggy Temper, Ulysses’ wife, was working...