In Ian Hamilton Finlay's *Talismans And Signifiers* the cube, with its rusticated edge, is accompanied by a text from *Proclus*: 'How we observe that physical beauty exists only when form prevails over matter, and form when overpowered by it is filled with ugliness and shapelessness and becomes as it were formless, being assimilated to the underlying nature.' The contrast between smooth and rusticated surfaces, cherished by the classical architect demonstrates one of the theorems of Vitulio: 'Difference is beautiful....and everything visible is beautiful in a relative way.'