Who never wished to see without being seen, to know without being known, to be present while absent ? Unanimously praised by the Polish press, warmly welcomed when translated in French, the first novel of Andrzej Bart revive the myth of immortality. A libertine, playful Italian prince, growing old and unwilling to die, concludes an evil pact with an odd painter : through his own portrait, he will see and hear for ever… And the painting, sarcastic but mute, will travel across Europe and years, from Venice, in the eighteenth century, to the events of march 1968 in Warsaw, following the capricious destiny of any piece of art : inheritance, gift, lost, theft, and so on, just enough time to know mankind and, most of all, society. The confrontation with a different culture and the biting humor bestow a new tone on this novel that has a lot to say about post-Communist score settling.