Many famous paintings in history were images from their creators' inner minds. Through their works, people could glimpse the deepest secrets of the human soul. Raphael's Madonna della Sedia was one such painting, and so was The Nun.
At the time, the female painter had been sitting before a clean canvas, searching for inspiration, when she suddenly saw the clear outline of a nun.
A voice told her that she had to complete the work: blurred brushstrokes, a black-and-white palette, a young woman's deathly pale face and half-closed eyes, the overall atmosphere as tranquil as a dream.
Yet the painting also carried an oppressive sense of terror. The painter spent a month completing the portrait and displayed it at the Venice Biennale. Her work drew attention from many quarters and became extremely popular, quickly selling.
The first buyer was an unmarried businesswoman. She hung the painting on her bedroom wall. Whenever she turned off the lights, there seemed to be a mysterious figure moving about in the bedroom besides herself, appearing and vanishing. Whenever she tried to sleep, footsteps and sounds of things being moved would ring in her ears, so she returned the eerie painting.
The second buyer was a young Wall Street investor. He hung the painting in his living room. This time, the nun stepped down from the canvas and walked straight to his side. He could even "smell" her scent. He jolted awake from a dream and ran to check the living room, only to find that the tranquil nun was no longer on the canvas.
He fainted from fright right there in the living room. The maid did not discover him until she came to clean the next day.
At first, he thought he had been dreaming. But after it happened several more times, he