Vitality and beauty are gifts of Nature for those who live according to its laws.
Leonardo Da VinciRead
When you are painting you should take a flat mirror and often look at your work within it, and it will then be seen in reverse, and will appear to be by the hand of some other master, and you will be better able to judge of its faults than in any other way.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote suggests that self-reflection and perspective are crucial for improving artwork.
Leonardo Da Vinci emphasizes the importance of looking at one's work from a different perspective, in this case using a flat mirror. By reversing the view of the painting, artists can critically assess their work as if it were created by someone else, enabling them to identify faults and make improvements more effectively.
Themes
ArtReflectionImprovementSelf-CritiquePerspective
In practice
Example use cases
In an art class, a teacher might use this quote to encourage students to evaluate their own works critically.
More from Leonardo Da Vinci
All quotes →Small rooms or dwellings set the mind in the right path, large ones cause it to go astray.
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Patience serves us against insults precisely as clothes do against the cold. For if you multiply your garments as the cold increases, that cold cannot hurt you; in the same way increase your patience under great offenses, and they cannot hurt your feelings.
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For, verily, great love springs from great knowledge of the beloved object, and if you little know it, you will be able to love it only little or not at all.
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It is a far worthier thing to read by the light of experience than to adorn oneself with the labors of others.
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