Those who become enamoured of the art, without having previously applied to the diligent study of the scientific part of it, may be compared to mariners who put to the sea in a ship without rudder or compass and therefore cannot be certain of arriving at the wished for port.
I am not to blame for putting forward, in the course of my work on science, any general rule derived from a previous conclusion.
We may call painting the grandchild of nature.
In the days of thy youth seek to obtain that which shall compensate the losses of thy old age.
Any color is more distinctly seen when opposed to its contrary: thus, black on white, blear near yellow, green near red, and so on.
Why are the bones of great fishes, and oysters and corals and various other shells and sea-snails, found on the high tops of mountains that border the sea, in the same way in which they are found in the depths of the sea?
The senses are of the earth, the reason stands apart from them in contemplation.
Shadows which you see with difficulty, and whose boundaries you cannot define... these you should not represent as finished or sharply defined, for the result would be that your work would seem wooden.
Do not reveal, if liberty is precious to you; my face is the prison of love.
I know very well that because I am unlettered some presumptuous people will think they have the right to criticize me, saying that I am an uncultured man. What stupid fools! Do they not know that I could reply to them as Marius did to the Roman patricians: "Do those who pride themselves on the works of other men claim to challenge mine?
How painting surpasses all human works by reason of the subtle possibilities which it contains.
Why seek to embarrass [the artist] with vanities foreign to his quietness? Know you not that certain sciences require the whole man, leaving no part of him at leisure for your trifles?
Weight is caused by one element being situated in another; and it moves by the shortest line towards its centre, not by its own choice, not because the centre draws it to itself, but because the other intervening element cannot withstand it.
If you call painting dumb poetry, the painter may call poetry blind painting.
If we make mistakes in our first compositions and do not know them, we may not amend them.
Though I may not . . . be able to quote other authors, I shall rely on that which is much greater and more worthy - on experience.
My works are the issue of simple and plain experience which is the true mistress.
Avoid studies of which the result dies with the worker.
Sculptured figures which appear in motion, will, in their standing position, actually look as if they were falling forward.
It is no small benefit on finding oneself in bed in the dark to go over again in the imagination the main lines of the forms previously studied, or other noteworthy things conceived by ingenious speculation.
Perspective is to painting what the bridle is to the horse, the rudder to a ship.
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.
I have been impressed with the urgency of doing.
I would venture to affirm that a man cannot attain excellence if he satisfy the ignorant and not those of his own craft, and if he be not 'singular' or 'distant,' or whatever you like to call him.
The Medici created and destroyed me.
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