Painting contains a divine force which not only makes absent men present, as friendship is said to do, but moreover makes the dead seem almost alive.

Nam habet ea quidem in se uim admodum divinam : non modo quod ut de amicitia dicunt, absentes pictura praesentes esse faciat : ureum etiam defunctos longa post secula uiuentibus exhibeat, ut summa cum artificis admiratione, ac uisentium ulouptate cognoscatur.

Leon Battista Alberti

More information about this quote

Topic

Power of art Painting Art

Author

Leon Battista Alberti

Language

Latin

Time

1435 1430s 15th century

Era

Middle Ages

Occupation

Architect Writer

From

Italy Europe

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Alberti, Leon Battista. De Pictura [On Painting]. c. 1450, bk. 2.

Current Citation

Alberti, Leon Battista. On Painting, translated by John R. Spencer. Yale University Press, 1966, bk. 2.

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Related Quotes

Below are one or more quotes that share at least one tag with the quote at the top of the page

Another quote about Art

Painting isn't an aesthetic operation; it's a form of magic designed as a mediator between this strange hostile world and us, a way of seizing the power by giving form to our terrors as well as our desires.

Pablo Picasso

More information about this quote
Topic
Painting Art
Speaker
Pablo Picasso
Time
1964 1960s 20th century
Authentication Score 3
Citation

Picasso, Pablo. Quoted in Life with Picasso, written by Francoise Gilot and Carlton Lake. McGraw-Hill, 1964, pt. 6.

Another quote from Middle Ages

When I had journeyed half of our life's way,
I found myself within a shadowed forest,
for I had lost the path that does not stray.

Dante Alighieri

Inferno

Buy Inferno at Amazon Buy Inferno at Amazon
Read the Divine Comedy at Project Gutenberg
More information about this quote

Author

Dante Alighieri
Source
Inferno The Divine Comedy
Medium
Poem
Genre
Narrative poem Epic poem Religious literature
Statement Type
Opening lines
Language
Italian
Time
1321 1320s 14th century
Era
Middle Ages
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Alighieri, Dante. "Inferno [Hell]." La Comedia di Dante Alleghieri [The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri]. Foligno: Johann Numeister and Evangelista Angelini da Trevi, 1472.

Current Citation

Alighieri, Dante. "Inferno." The Divine Comedy, edited by David H. Higgins, translated by C. H. Sisson. Oxford University Press, 2008.

Another quote originally in Latin

For what a man had rather were true he more readily believes.

Francis Bacon

Novum Organum

More information about this quote
Topic
Credulity Human nature

Author

Francis Bacon
Source
Novum Organum
Genre
Philosophical literature
Language
Latin
Time
1620 1620s 17th century
Era
Age of Enlightenment
Authentication Score 2
Original Citation

Bacon, Francis. Novum Organum. London: John Beale, 1620, bk. 1, no. 49.

Current Citation

Bacon, Francis. The New Organon. Translated by Michael Silverthorne. Cambridge UP, 2000, bk. 1, no. 49.