Art

O painter skilled in anatomy, beware lest the undue prominence of the bones, sinews and muscles cause you to become a wooden painter from the desire to make your nude figures reveal all.

A poet knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away.

You grow in reputation like bread in the hands of a child.

The merit of painting lies in the exactness of reproduction. Painting is a science and all sciences are based on mathematics. No human inquiry can be a science unless it pursues its path through m a t h e m a t i c a l e x p o s i t i o n a n d demonstration.

Thirst will parch your tongue and your body will waste through lack of sleep ere you can describe in words that which painting instantly sets before the eye.

Perspective is the rein and rudder of painting.

He who can copy can do.

The painter will produce pictures of little merit if he takes the works of others as his standard.

It is better to imitate ancient than modern work.

An artist who lacks the power of self-criticism accomplishes but little. It is good if your work stands higher than your own opinion of it; bad if it is on the same level. 68 But it is a great disaster if your work stands lower than your judgment of it.

No one should ever imitate the style of another because, with regard to art, he will be called a nephew and not a child of nature.

Do not imitate one another’s style. If you do, so far as your art is concerned you will be called a grandson, rather than the son of Nature.

The painter’s mind is a copy of the divine mind, since it operates freely in creating the many kinds of animals, plants, fruits, landscapes, countrysides, ruins, and awe inspiring places.

For those colors which you wish to be beautiful, always first prepare a pure white ground.

Any color is more distinctly seen when opposed to its contrary: thus, black on white, blear near yellow, green near red, and so on.

First study the science, and then practice the art which is born of that science.

What is fair in men, passes away, but not so in art.

Drawing is based upon perspective, which is nothing else than a thorough knowledge of the function of the eye.

The worst evil which can befall the artist is that his work should appear good in his own eyes.

A beautiful body perishes, but a work of art dies not.

The beginnings and ends of shadow lie between the light and darkness and may be infinitely diminished and infinitely increased. Shadow is the means by which bodies display their form. The forms of bodies could not be understood in detail but for shadow.

That painter who has no doubts will achieve little.

The painter must be solitary. For if you are alone you are completely yourself, but if you are accompanied by a single companion, you are only half yourself.

Perspective is to painting what the bridle is to the horse, the rudder to a ship.