Artist Quotes by Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

Beauty perishes in life, but is immortal in art.

— Leonardo da Vinci

Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication

— Leonardo Da Vinci

The painter who has no doubt about his own ability will attain very little.

— Leonardo da Vinci

Art is never finished, only abandoned.

— Leonardo da Vinci

That painter who has no doubts will achieve little.

— Leonardo da Vinci

We may call painting the grandchild of nature.

— Leonardo da Vinci

Perspective is the rein and rudder of painting.

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

The first object of the painter is to make a flat plane appear as a body in relief and projecting from that…

— Leonardo da Vinci

He only moves toward the perfection of his art whose criticism surpasses his achievement.

— Leonardo da Vinci

Do not imitate one another's style. If you do, so far as your art is concerned you will be called a grandson,…

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

It reflects no great honour on a painter to be able to execute one thing well.

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

Men and words are ready made, and you, O Painter, if you do not know how to make your figures move, are…

— Leonardo da Vinci

Painting is concerned with the ten things you can see: these are darkness and brightness, substance and color, form and place, remoteness…

— Leonardo da Vinci

An artist who lacks the power of self-criticism accomplishes but little. It is good if your work stands higher than your own…

— Leonardo da Vinci

O painter skilled in anatomy, beware lest the undue prominence of the bones, sinews and muscles cause you to become a wooden…

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

The mind of the painter must resemble a mirror, which always takes the colour of the object it reflects and is completely…

— Leonardo da Vinci

Why seek to embarrass [the artist] with vanities foreign to his quietness? Know you not that certain sciences require the whole man,…

— Leonardo da Vinci

A painter was asked why, since he made such beautiful figures, which were but dead things, his children were so ugly; to…

— Leonardo da Vinci

“If the painter has clumsy hands, he will be apt to introduce them into his works, and so of any other part…

— Leonardo da Vinci

Let the painter composing narrative pictures take pleasure in wealth and variety, and avoid repeating any part that occurs in it, so…

— Leonardo da Vinci

After painting comes Sculpture, a very noble art, but one that does not in the execution require the same supreme ingenuity as…

— Leonardo da Vinci

One painter ought never to imitate the manner of any other; because in that case he cannot be called the child of…

— Leonardo da Vinci

It reflects no great honor on a painter to be able to execute only one thing well -- such as a head,…

— Leonardo da Vinci

I say that in narrative paintings one should mingle direct contraries close by, because they produce strong contrasts with one another, and…

— Leonardo da Vinci

You should look at certain walls stained with damp, or at stones of uneven color. If you have to invent some backgrounds…

— Leonardo da Vinci

I think it is no small attraction in a painter to be able to give a pleasing air to his figures, and…

— Leonardo da Vinci

“Look at walls splashed with a number of stains, or stones of various mixed colours. If you have to invent some scene,…

— Leonardo da Vinci

The artist sees what others only catch a glimpse of.

— Leonardo da Vinci

Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.

— Leonardo da Vinci

Study the science of art and the art of science.

— Leonardo da Vinci

The painter strives and competes with nature.

— Leonardo da Vinci

The painter has the Universe in his mind and hands.

— Leonardo da Vinci

Art lives from constraints and dies from freedom.

— Leonardo da Vinci

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

— Leonardo da Vinci