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In about 1780 Louis Boilly painted a picture entitled Nina's Prelude. Garma describes and analyzes the changes made in the many copies executed from that time until the present day. The original depicts a violinist and a pianist, who have suddenly stopped playing, kissing each other while each holds and caresses the instrument—symbolically the genital—of the other.
A short while ago, this picture was used in an advertisement of a well-known perfume. The bed is gone, the instruments unused: all that is left is the kiss. As if such repression were not enough, in a still more recent advertisement of the same perfume, the original picture appears as a faded background for a proper couple with an almost respectful attitude toward each other. Garma holds nevertheless that such severe repression cannot be maintained and points to the sudden and violent re-emergence of the instinctual forces in the symbolism of the most recent picture of the series. Now the original reappears but in place of the couple there is simply the girl's overturned chair—her complete genital surrender.