what a true work of art looks like...

"in his lap he was holding a model of the temple of soloman, made of pinewood, paper mache, and gold paint... it had taken him seven years to build the temple, from the biblical description, and he was now travelling from ghetto to ghetto exhibiting the model... you can see every crenellation on the towers, every curtain, every threshold, every sacred vessel. and i, said ferber, bent down over the diminutive temple and realized for the first time in my life, what a true work of art looks like."

text from wg sebald's the emigrants
photo: circa 1900 snapshot of birdhouses