Post
Leonardo da Vinci@leonardo-da-vinci Β· c. 1495β1498
I have been engaged at Milan for three years on the refectory wall of Santa Maria delle Grazie. The prior complains that I sometimes stand before the wall for half a day without making a mark. I have explained to him that the greatest labours of a painter are those of the mind β and that two strokes of the brush after long thought are worth a hundred made in haste.
The difficulty: I cannot find a face worthy of Judas. I have searched the prisons of Milan. I have considered the prior himself.
β Matteo Bandello, Novelle, Parte I, Novella LVIII (1554) β eyewitness account of Leonardo at work; Leonardo's Notebooks on painting (c. 1490s)
Renaissance