Leonardo da Vinci was a famous Italian painter, draftsman, theorist and muralist of the High Renaissance in Italy. He is best known for his notebooks, inventions and some of the most influential paintings in the history of art. Famous Leonardo da Vinci artworks include “The Baptism of Christ”, “Adoration of the Magi”, “Lady with an Ermine”, “Madonna of the Carnation”, “Ginevra de’ Benci”, “Virgin of the Rocks”, “Portrait of a Musician”, “La Belle Ferronnière”, “The Vitruvian Man”, “The Virgin and Child with Saint Anne”, “The Last Supper”, and “Mona Lisa or La Gioconda”.
Mini biography: Born Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci on the 15th of April, 1452 in Vinci, Florence (Italy). His mother was Caterina di Meo Lippi and his father Messer Piero Fruosino di Antonio da Vinci was a wealthy Florentine legal notary. The artist died on the 2nd of May, 1519 in Clos Lucé, Amboise, France at the age of 67. Leonardo is buried at the Chapel of Saint-Hubert, Château d’Amboise, France.
List of Famous Leonardo da Vinci Art Quotes
Painting is poetry which is seen and not heard, and poetry is a painting which is heard but not seen. These two arts, you may call them both either poetry or painting, have here interchanged the senses by which they penetrate to the intellect. Leonardo da Vinci
It vexes me greatly that having to earn my living has forced me to interrupt the work and to attend to small matters. Leonardo da Vinci
Necessity is the mistress and guardian of Nature. Leonardo da Vinci
Many are they who have a taste and love for drawing, but no talent; and this will be discernible in boys who are not diligent and never finish their drawings with shading. Leonardo da Vinci
Whoso curbs not lustful desires puts himself on a level with the beasts. Leonardo da Vinci
If you are representing a white body let it be surrounded by ample space, because as white has no color of its own, it is tinged and altered in some degree by the color of the objects surrounding it. Leonardo da Vinci
As a day well spent makes sleep seem pleasant, so a life well employed makes death pleasant. A life well spent is long. Leonardo da Vinci
Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master. Leonardo da Vinci
The eye, which is called the window of the soul, is the principal means by which the central sense can most completely and abundantly appreciate the infinite works of nature; and the ear is the second, which acquires dignity by hearing of the things the eye has seen. Leonardo da Vinci
Those who are in love with practice without knowledge are like the sailor who gets into a ship without rudder or compass and who never can be certain whether he is going. Practice must always be founded on sound theory, and to this Perspective is the guide and the gateway; and without this nothing can be done well in the matter of drawing. Leonardo da Vinci
One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself. Leonardo da Vinci
Shadow is not the absence of light, merely the obstruction of the luminous rays by an opaque body. Shadow is of the nature of darkness. Light is of the nature of a luminous body; one conceals and the other reveals. They are always associated and inseparable from all objects. But shadow is a more powerful agent than light, for it can impede and entirely deprive bodies of their light, while light can never entirely expel shadow from a body, that is from an opaque body. Leonardo da Vinci
Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art. Leonardo da Vinci
A good painter has two main objects to paint, man and the intention of his soul. The former is easy, the latter hard as he has to represent it by the attitude and movement of the limbs. Leonardo da Vinci
He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss. Leonardo da Vinci
The painter who draws merely by practice and by eye, without any reason, is like a mirror which copies every thing placed in front of it without being conscious of their existence. Leonardo da Vinci
The Medici created and destroyed me. Leonardo da Vinci
To lie is so vile, that even if it were in speaking well of godly things it would take off something from God’s grace; and Truth is so excellent, that if it praises but small things they become noble. Leonardo da Vinci
The color of the object illuminated partakes of the color of that which illuminates it. Leonardo da Vinci
Though I may not, like them, be able to quote other authors, I shall rely on that which is much greater and more worthy — on experience, the mistress of their Masters. Leonardo da Vinci
Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind. Leonardo da Vinci
Drawing is based upon perspective, which is nothing else than a thorough knowledge of the function of the eye. And this function simply consists in receiving in a pyramid the forms and colors of all the objects placed before it. I say in a pyramid, because there is no object so small that it will not be larger than the spot where these pyramids are received into the eye. Therefore, if you extend the lines from the edges of each body as they converge you will bring them to a single point, and necessarily the said lines must form a pyramid. Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci Self Portrait Drawing
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Related or similar popular artists include: Michelangelo, Rembrandt, Eugene Delacroix, Raphael, and other Famous Italian Artists.
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