Self-Portrait, Leonardo da Vincione of my favorite things about my iphone is the marvelous e-reader i have. (in case you're wondering, it is the stanza app.) i've already read several books on it...some i'll own up to reading (like the outlander series, seriously love them) and some i won't, so don't ask. last night (more like this morning...while nursing a baby...) i decided i wanted to start a new book. so through project gutenberg (a place where you can download free ebooks) i downloaded a book called "thoughts on art and life" by leonardo da vinci. i am still in the foreword but i ran across something that really struck me, half-asleep and all, and i wanted to share it with you. this is exactly how i feel about art.
"He (da Vinci) maintained that art was of slight use unless able to show what its subject had in mind. Painting should aim, therefore, to reproduce the inner mental state by the attitude assumed. This was, in other words, a natural symbolism, in which the symbol was no mere convention, but the actual outward projection of the inner condition of the mind. Art here offered an equation of inward purpose and outward expression, neither complete without the other."
"He (da Vinci) maintained that art was of slight use unless able to show what its subject had in mind. Painting should aim, therefore, to reproduce the inner mental state by the attitude assumed. This was, in other words, a natural symbolism, in which the symbol was no mere convention, but the actual outward projection of the inner condition of the mind. Art here offered an equation of inward purpose and outward expression, neither complete without the other."
painting should reproduce the inner mental state...an outward projection of the inner condition of the mind.
i just love art.
1 comment:
Oh that is so very much fitting. Thanks for sharing and the link! I will return a bit later s the painting of your present is deeeply touching me. Sorting out thoughts first! Love to you!
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