..another image also comes to mind:
Nietzsche leaving his hotel in Turin.
seeing a horse and a coachman beating it with a whip, Nietzsche went up to the horse and, before the very coachman's eyes,
put his arms around the horse's neck and burst into tears.
that took place in 1889, when Nietzsche, too, had removed himself from the world of people.
in other words, it was at the time when his mental illness had just erupted.
but for that very reason i feel his gesture has broad implications: Nietzsche was trying to apologize to the horse for Descartes.
his lunacy (that is, his final break from mankind) began at the very moment he burst into tears over the horse.

and that is the Nietzsche i love.