The Beef vs. The Wall

In one essay, Rand complains about Rembrandt's painting of a side of beef. She says it's a bad choice of subject, a waste of his skill, and esthetically unjustifiable.

In a later essay, she writes about Capuletti's painting of a wall with peeling paint and cracked plaster. She says the subject would be perfect for the life-is-decay kind of art, but that Capuletti has transformed the subject into an object of beauty. She says she would not have believed it was possible.

So, here is an important qualification of the position taken in the first essay. It is evident she has changed her mind about something. But only the first essay makes it into her book on aesthetics.

Some of her thoughts about art
Were left in scattered parts.