Isn’t that art’s purpose, after all? To engage, and if necessary, disturb the beholder? To upset the apple cart and challenge the status quo? Was that not what the great Michelangelo did as he lay on his back, painting political satire onto the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel? Haven’t artists, from that great sixteenth-century genius to Manet and Rivera, outraged the public and forced them to THINK? Now that his art has been attacked, Josephus has joined the ranks of an illustrious fellowship.”
-- Narration (Gualtiero Agnello)  (Prologue)

Importance: This quote from the book's Prologue is spoken by a character who has made the creation of art, and the support of emerging artists, his life's work. It is the opening statement of the book's thematically central exploration of the nature, quality, and purposes of art in general, and of visual art in particular. It foreshadows considerations of this theme later in the book...