Fables, memories, things he's read, things he's seen, transposed or made up, the stories gathered in Portrait Tales take the reader around the world, hopping through art history, with imaginative flair for the caustic or extravagant, yet always telling detail: from an impossible portrait of Jesus in 50 AD, which somehow brings J.L. Godard into the picture, to the 14th c. Ottoman Empire, to China's Qing Dynasty, the Italian Renaissance, French Rococo, and Louise Bourgeois's mirrors, these historiettes expound the paradoxes, the necessity, and the dangers of seeking truthfulness in art. With gentle but unmistakable irony, they highlight the intricate connexion between art and power.