A room with a nude

Should you hang a nude over the mantelpiece? The question arises because David and Samantha Cameron have shown off not one but two nudes in the drawing-room of their house in the country. They’re not over the mantelpiece, it’s true, though published photographs indicate this might be because the fire smokes. But just as the eyes of a portrait follow you round the room, in the cliché of popular art criticism, so a nude by Lucian Freud or Stanley Spencer challenges the viewer to a sort of artistic arm-wrestling. For an unprepared guest hovering on the hearthrug, toying with a dry sherry, it is daunting. An added complication is when the nude depicts a member of the family. What should a visitor say – “Very nice”? Better to say nothing and evince an interest in the blameless landscape on the opposite wall.