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Subjects Quotes

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Subjects Quotes

“Although the poet has as wide a choice of subjects as the painter, his creations fail to afford as much satisfaction to mankind as do paintings... if the poet serves the understanding by way of the ear, the painter does so by the eye, which is the nobler sense.”

Ifs Way Doe Eye Choices Understanding Failing Subjects Mankind Creation Painting Poet Ears Satisfaction Wide Painter

Author:Leonardo da Vinci

“When a painter is working he is aware of the means which are available to him - these include his materials, the style he inherits, the conventions he must obey, his prescribed or freely chosen subject matter - as constituting both an opportunity and a restraint.”

Mean Matter Opportunity Challenges Subjects Style Materials Available Chosen Painter Conventions Restraint Subject Matter

Book:Sense of Sight

Source: Sense of Sight

“While it is emotion that gives an impulse to the landscape painter, it is his style that inspires the critic's praise, and his subject that inveigles the untutored beholder.”

Giving Emotion Subjects Style Inspire Praise Critics Painter Landscape Impulse Beholder

Author:Walter J. Phillips

“In literary art, as in the art of the architect, the painter, the musician, signs that the artist is thinking of his own achievement more than of his subject always offend me.”

Thinking Art Artist Subjects Achievement Musician Painter Architect Literary Art

Book:Facts and Comments

Source: Facts and Comments

“What is a portrait good for, unless it shows just how the subject was seen by the painter? In the old days before photography came in a sitter had a perfect right to say to the artist: "Paint me just as I am." Now if he wishes absolute fidelity he can go to the photographer and get it.”

Ifs Shows Artist Wish Perfect Subjects Photography Absolutes Paint Photographer Painter Portraits Fidelity Old Days

Author:Aubrey Beardsley

“Dramatic use of color, harmonious design, the interplay of light and shadow across a variety of textures, the portrayal of the figure and other subject matter that reflects the sophistication and beauty I find in nature - all presented from a unique point of view - can only be successfully achieved with a sound command of the painter's craft... history will determine how successful I have been.”

“One interesting feature of criticism is seen in the ease with which it discovers what Addison called the specific quality of an author. In Livy, it will be the manner of telling the story; in Sallust, personal identification with the character; in Tacitus, the analysis of the deed into its motive. If the same test be applied to painters, it will find the prominent faculty of Correggio to be manifested in harmony of effect; of Poussin, in the sentiment of his landscapes; and of Raffaelle, in the general comprehension of his subject.”

“Perhaps the central question about [Eliot] Porter's work is about the relationship between science, aesthetics, and environmental politics. His brother, the painter and critic Fairfield Porter, wrote in a 1960 review of [Porter's] colour photographs: 'There is no subject and background, every corner is alive,' and this suggests what an ecological aesthetic might look like.”

Looks Might Alive Subjects Brother Critics Environmental Photograph Corners Backgrounds Painter Colour Reviews Aesthetic 1960s Aesthetics Ecological Eliot

Author:Rebecca Solnit

“Imagine a painter crucified by his subject!”

Art Artist Imagine Subjects Failure Painter

Book:Selected poems

Source: Selected poems

“I think that one of the things is that, if you are going to decide to be a painter, you have got to decide that you are not going to be afraid of making a fool of yourself. I think another thing is to be able to find subjects which really absorb you to try and do. I feel that without a subject you automatically go back into decoration because you haven't got the subject which is always eating into you to bring it back - and the greatest art always returns you to the vulnerability of the human situation.”

Ifs Thinking Feels Trying Humans Art Able Situation Subjects Havens Fool Return Eating Painter Vulnerability Decoration Always Eating Making A Fool Of Yourself

Book:Francis Bacon: Retrospektive

Source: Francis Bacon: Retrospektive

“People aren't interested in blueprints; they want to sense the painter's involvement and pleasure in the subject. . . . Paint a sense of place.”

People Want Pleasure Subjects Paint Painter Involvement Blueprints Sense Of Place

Book:The art of landscape painting

Source: The art of landscape painting

“Photography has arrived at the point where it is capable of liberating painting from all literature, from the anecdote, and even from the subject. In any case, a certain aspect of the subject now belongs to the domain of photography. So shouldn't painters profit from their newly acquired liberty, and make use of it to do other things?”

Use Certain Literature Liberty Cases Subjects Painting Photography Capable Aspect Profit Painter Domain Liberating Anecdotes

Author:Pablo Picasso