Vivienne's point wasn't invalid, since this room wasn't one in which he planned to entertain any of his normal guests, but he didn't want to go straight for anything too shocking. Hence the choice of subject matter in the paintings; he could argue that this was artistic nudity, if need be, not pornographic nudity, and no one would really be able to refute him. If there was no danger of it ever being seen except by those who would appreciate it, he could have just bought a painting of an orgy to set the appropriate mood, but alas, that was not the case.

"Sometimes they slip through," he protested with a frown. "It's hard to tell, sometimes, which are really decent and which are just pretending." It wasn't as though there was any universally agreed upon signal that someone was interested in partaking in reckless anonymous sex, after all — and if there had been, Merlin knew Emrys wouldn't be one to use it. One had to have some sense of decorum and decency, after all, even about things that were utterly indecent.

He returned his attention to the paintings as Christobal made his comments, surveying them pensively. He honestly hadn't noticed anything amiss with the shepherd, but trusted his friend's artistic eye on proportion more than his own. Even so, he was having a hard time seeing it. "Which head?" he asked quite earnestly.