Tuesday, April 19:
R. slept well. Our first conversation leads us - I do not know how - to the ancient world. I say to him that clothing seems to give life a particular flavor, because, as it were, it leads one to expect the movement which these copious folds would encourage; nakedness, rather, arouses feelings of stillness.
R. agrees with me and says that painting in particular is on the wrong path when it depicts the nude female figure, which, from an aesthetic point of view, is not really beautiful. Then we part and are reunited in the church, to which R. comes after the sermon for the holy act. He, too, is moved, deeply moved, and he tells me he was again inspired by great hopes; the clergyman had nothing to do with it, he says, it was the black robes which gave him the feeling of something distinct from ordinary life, and he was delighted to see how moved we all were by the ceremony. He wishes to baptize Levi and to admit no Jews to Holy Communion. In the evening he plays for me parts of Parsifal. Our conversation comes back to statues. I wrote to Lusch of our feelings and answered Herr Seitz, who wrote to me very cordially but has withdrawn his work.