734 Quotes by Leonardo da Vinci

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.

Shadow is the diminution alike of light and of darkness, and stands between darkness and light.

Just as iron which is not used grows rusty, and water putrefies and freezes in the cold, so the mind of which no use is made is spoilt.

Experiment is the sole interpreter of the artifices of Nature.

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.

An arch consists of two weaknesses which, leaning one against the other, make a strength.

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.

Our body is dependent on heaven and heaven on the Spirit.

An artist's studio should be a small space because small rooms discipline the mind and large ones distract it.