He was renowned through circumstances of his early career, "only too well known to the whole world," and of late for his researches in Spanish history.

Now he intended to write also on the position of modern German universities, and, she believed, something about the Dresden Madonna too.

In short, Varvara Petrovna refused to surrender Stepan Trofimovitch to the tender mercies of Yulia Mihailovna.
"The Dresden Madonna?
You mean the Sistine Madonna?
_Chere_ Varvara Petrovna, I spent two hours sitting before that picture and came away utterly disillusioned.

I could make nothing of it and was in complete amazement.

Karmazinov, too, says it's hard to understand it.