The Mind of the Artist | Page 9

the tenor of the objects which present themselves before it, and he
should be freed from all other cares. And if, while considering and
examining one subject, a second should intervene, as happens when an
object occupies the mind, he ought to decide which of these subjects
presents greater difficulties in investigation, and follow that until it
becomes entirely clear, and afterwards pursue the investigation of the
other. And above all he should keep his mind as clear as the surface of
a mirror, which becomes changed to as many different colours as are
those of the objects within it, and his companions should resemble him
in a taste for these studies; and if he fail to find any such, he should
accustom himself to be alone in his investigations, for in the end he will
find no more profitable companionship.
Leonardo.
LI
If you are fond of copying other Men's Work, as being Originals more
constant to be seen and imitated than any living Object, I should rather
advise to copy anything moderately carved than excellently painted:
For by imitating a Picture, we only habituate our Hand to take a mere
Resemblance; whereas by drawing from a carved Original, we learn not
only to take this Resemblance, but also the true Lights.
Leon Battista Alberti.
LII
There are a thousand proofs that the old masters and all good painters
from Raphael onwards executed their frescoes from cartoons and their
little easel pictures from more or less finished drawings.... Your model
gives you exactly what you want to paint neither in character of
drawing nor in colour, but at the same time you cannot do without him.
To paint Achilles the most goodly of men, though you had for your

model the most abject you must depend on him, and can depend on him
for the structure of the human body, for its movement and poise. The
proof of this is that Raphael used his pupils in his studies for the
movements of the figures in his divine pictures.
Whatever your talents may be, if you paint not from your studies after
nature, but directly from the model, you will always be a slave and
your pictures will show it. Raphael, on the contrary, had so completely
mastered nature and had his mind so full of her, that instead of being
ruled by her, one might say that she obeyed him and came at his
command to place herself in his pictures.
Ingres.
LIII
No one can ever design till he has learned the language of Art by
making many finished copies both of Nature, Art, and of whatever
comes in his way, from earliest childhood. The difference between a
bad artist and a good is, that the bad artist seems to copy a great deal,
the good one does copy a great deal.
Blake.
LIV
If you deprive an artist of all he has borrowed from the experience of
others the originality left will be but a twentieth part of him.
Originality by itself cannot constitute a remarkable talent.
Wiertz.
LV
I am convinced that to reach the highest degree of perfection as a
painter, it is necessary, not only to be acquainted with the ancient
statues, but we must be inwardly imbued with a thorough
comprehension of them.

Rubens.
LVI
First of all copy drawings by a good master made by his art from nature
and not as exercises; then from a relief, keeping by you a drawing done
from the same relief; then from a good model, and of this you ought to
make a practice.
Leonardo.
LVII
I wish to do something purely Greek; I feed my eyes on the antique
statues, I mean even to imitate some of them. The Greeks never
scrupled to reproduce a composition, a movement, a type already
received and used. They put all their care, all their art, into perfecting
an idea which had been used by others before them. They thought, and
thought rightly, that in the arts the manner of rendering and expressing
an idea matters more than the idea itself.
[Illustration: Rubens THE CASTLE IN THE PARK Hanfstaengl]
To give a clothing, a perfect form to one's thought is to be an artist ... it
is the only way.
Well, I have done my best and I hope to attain my object.
L. David.
LVIII
Who amongst us, if he were to attempt in reality to represent a
celebrated work of Apelles or Timanthus, such as Pliny describes them,
but would produce something absurd, or perfectly foreign to the exalted
greatness of the ancients? Each one, relying on his own powers, would
produce some wretched, crude, unfermented stuff, instead of an
exquisite old wine, uniting strength and mellowness, outraging those
great spirits whom I endeavour reverently to follow, satisfied,