It Is Very Rarely Granted

I Prefer You To Take As Your Model A Mediocre Sculpture Rather Than An Excellent Painting, For From Painted Objects We Train Our Hand Only To Make A Likeness, Whereas From Sculptures We Learn To Represent Both Likeness And Correct Incidence Of Light.

Perhaps The Artist Who Seeks Dignity Above All In His 'historia', Ought To Represent Very Few Figures; For As Paucity Of Words Imparts Majesty To A Prince, Provided Histhoughts And Orders Are Understood, So The Presence Of Only The Strictly Necessary Numbers Of Bodies Confers Dignity On A Picture.

I Shall Praise Those Faces Which Seem To Project Out Of The Picture As Though They Were Sculptured, And I Shall Censure Those Faces In Which I See No Art But That Of Outline.

I Will Never Tire Of Recommending The Custom, Practiced By The Best Architects, Of Preparing Not Only Drawings And Sketches, But Also Models Of Wood Or Any Other Material. These... Enable Us To Examine... The Work As A Whole... And, Before Continuing Any Further, To Estimate The Likely Trouble And Expense.

I Certainly Consider A Great Appreciation Of Painting To Be The Best Indication Of A Most Perfect Mind.