Painting Quotes by Leonardo da Vinci

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

— 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

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

— 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

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

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

O painter, take care lest the greed for gain prove a stronger incentive than renown in art, for to gain this renown…

— 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

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

The painter or draftsman ought to be solitary, in order that the well-being of the body not sap the vigour of the…

— Leonardo da Vinci

The mind of a painter should be like a mirror which is filled with as many images as there are things placed…

— Leonardo da Vinci

Music cannot be called otherwise than the sister of painting, for she is dependent upon hearing, a sense second to sight, and…

— 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

Although the poet has as wide a choice of subjects as the painter, his creations fail to afford as much satisfaction to…

— Leonardo da Vinci

Music may be called the sister of painting, for she is dependent upon hearing, the sense which comes second and her harmony…

— 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

Affective gestures pointing to things near either in time or space should be made with the hand not very far from the…

— Leonardo da Vinci

Poetry is superior to painting in the presentation of words, and painting is superior to poetry in the presentation of facts. For…

— 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

Now do you not see that the eye embraces the beauty of the whole world? It counsels and corrects all the arts…

— 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 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 good painter must paint two things: a person and the essence of his soul.

— Leonardo da Vinci

“Although a man be not a painter, he may have just opinions of the forms of men.”

— Leonardo da Vinci

“Painting is mute poetry, and poetry is blind painting”

— Leonardo da Vinci

A good painter has two main objects to paint, man and the intention of his soul.

— 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

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

— Leonardo da Vinci

Thirst will parch your tongue and your body will waste through lack of sleep ere you can describe in words that which…

— Leonardo da Vinci

A painter should begin every canvas with a wash of black, because all things in nature are dark except where exposed by…

— Leonardo da Vinci