Cennino Cennini Quotes

When painting the faces of young persons ... use the yolk of the egg of a city hen, because they have lighter yolks than those of country hens.

When you have practiced drawing for a while... take pains and pleasure in constantly copying the best works that you can find done by the hand of great masters.

If you imitate the forms of a single artist through constant practice, your intelligence would have to be crude indeed for you not to get some nourishment from them.

Do not fail, as you go on, to draw something every day, for no matter how little it is, it will be well worthwhile, and it will do you a world of good.

If thou shouldst paint mountains in a good style and to look natural, take some large stones full of cracks and copy them.

Take note that, before going any farther, I will give you the exact proportion of a man. Those of a woman I will disregard, for she does not have any set proportion.

Mystery is the art of eliciting unseen things hidden in the shadow of natural ones... and serving to demonstrate as real the things that are not.

If you follow the course of one man through constant practice, your intelligence would have to be crude indeed for you not to get some nourishment from it.