Leonardo da Vinci Quotes About Painting

Quotes about: Painting

• Painting is poetry that is seen rather than felt, and poetry is painting that is felt rather than seen.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Art, Creativity, Drawing

• Painting is concerned with all the 10 attributes of sight; which are: Darkness, Light, Solidity and Colour, Form and Position, Distance and Propinquity, Motion and Rest.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Distance, Light, Sight

  Leonardo da Vinci (2014). “Delphi Complete Works of Leonardo da Vinci (Illustrated)”, p.345, Delphi Classics

• If you call painting dumb poetry, the painter may call poetry blind painting.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Dumb, May, Painting

  Leonardo Da Vinci, General Press (2016). “The Notebooks of Leonardo Da Vinci”, p.226, GENERAL PRESS

• Now do you not see that the eye embraces the beauty of the whole world? It counsels and corrects all the arts of mankind... it is the prince of mathematics, and the sciences founded on it are absolutely certain. It has measured the distances and sizes of the stars it has discovered the elements and their location... it has given birth to architecture and to perspective and to the divine art of painting.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Art, Nature, Travel

  Leonardo da Vinci (2008). “Notebooks”, p.105, OUP Oxford

• A good painter is to paint two main things, men and the working of man's mind.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Men, Two, Mind

• After painting comes Sculpture, a very noble art, but one that does not in the execution require the same supreme ingenuity as the art of painting, since in two most important and difficult particulars, in foreshortening and in light and shade, for which the painter has to invent a process, sculpture is helped by nature. Moreover, Sculpture does not imitate color which the painter takes pains to attune so that the shadows accompany the lights.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Art, Pain, Light

• Music cannot be called otherwise than the sister of painting, for she is dependent upon hearing, a sense second to sight, and her harmony is composed of the union of its proportional parts sounded simultaneously, rising and falling in one or more harmonic rhythms.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Nature, Travel, Fall

  "The literary works of Leonardo da Vinci".

• How painting surpasses all human works by reason of the subtle possibilities which it contains.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Art, Painting, Reason

  Leonardo (da Vinci) (1957). “Notebooks”

• When you are painting you should take a flat mirror and often look at your work within it, and it will then be seen in reverse, and will appear to be by the hand of some other master, and you will be better able to judge of its faults than in any other way.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Mirrors, Hands, Judging

  Leonardo (da Vinci) (1957). “Notebooks”

• Poetry is superior to painting in the presentation of words, and painting is superior to poetry in the presentation of facts. For this reason I judge painting to be superior to poetry.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Judging, Facts, Painting

  Leonardo (da Vinci) (1939). “The literary works of Leonardo da Vinci”

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

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Horse, Perspective, Ships

  da Vinci Leonardo, Leonardo (da Vinci) (1990). “Leonardo da Vinci's advice to artists”, Running Press Book Publishers

• Although the poet has as wide a choice of subjects as the painter, his creations fail to afford as much satisfaction to mankind as do paintings... if the poet serves the understanding by way of the ear, the painter does so by the eye, which is the nobler sense.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Eye, Choices, Understanding

• The painter who draws by practise and judgment of the eye without the use of reason is like the mirror which reproduces within itself all the objects which are set opposite to it without knowledge of the same.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Eye, Mirrors, Opposites

  Leonardo (da Vinci) (1965). “Leonardo Da Vinci on Painting: A Lost Book (Libro A)”, p.130, Univ of California Press

• Painting embraces and contains within itself all the things which nature produces or which results from the fortuitous actions of men... he is but a poor master who makes only a single figure well.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Men, Action, Painting

  Leonardo da Vinci (2008). “Notebooks”, p.213, OUP Oxford

• Perspective is the rein and rudder of painting.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Perspective, Painting, Rudders

• I say that in narrative paintings one should mingle direct contraries close by, because they produce strong contrasts with one another, and all the more so when they are very close together; that is, the ugly next to the beautiful, the big to the small, the old to the young, the strong to the weak; in this way you will vary as much as possible and close by.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Beautiful, Strong, Together

• The vivacity and brightness of colors in a landscape will never bear any comparison with a landscape in nature when it is illumined by the sun, unless the painting is placed in such a position that it will receive the same light from the sun as does the landscape.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Color, Light, Landscape

• Let the painter composing narrative pictures take pleasure in wealth and variety, and avoid repeating any part that occurs in it, so that the uniqueness and abundance attract people to it and delight the eye of the observer. I say that a narrative painting requires (depending on the scene), wherever the eye falls, a mixture of men of diverse appearances, of diverse ages and dress, combined together with women, children, dogs, horses, buildings, fields, and hills.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Dog, Horse, Children

• 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 mathematical exposition and demonstration.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Lying, Math, Path

• Surely when a man is painting a picture he ought not refuse to hear any man's opinion... Since men are able to form a true judgement as to the works of nature, how much more does it behoove us to admit that they are able to judge our faults.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Men, Judging, Listening

• We may call painting the grandchild of nature.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Grandchildren, May, Painting

• 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.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Sleep, Eye, Body

• He who despises painting has no love for the philosophy in nature.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Philosophy, Painting, Despise

  Leonardo (da Vinci) (1957). “Notebooks”

• Painting is concerned with the ten things you can see: these are darkness and brightness, substance and color, form and place, remoteness and nearness, movement and rest.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Color, Darkness, Substance

  da Vinci Leonardo, Leonardo (da Vinci) (1990). “Leonardo da Vinci's advice to artists”, Running Press Book Publishers

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