Thoughts on Art and Life

form the artistic temperament of the Renaissance. The practical side gave it the firm foundation of rationalism and reality on which it rested; the mystical side guided its effort to depict the unreal in terms of ideal beauty.

The first offspring of this union was Leonardo. Since the decline of ancient art, no painter had been able to fully express the human form, for an imperfect mastery of technique still proved to be a barrier. Leonardo was the first to completely free his personality from this constraint and make line express thought as no one before him could do. Nor was this his only triumph, but rather the foundation on which further achievement rested. Remarkable as a thinker alone, he preferred to enlist thought in the service of art and make art the handmaid of beauty. Leonardo saw the world not as it is, but as he himself was. He viewed it through the atmosphere of beauty that filled his mind and tinted its shadows with the mystery of his nature. To all this, his birthright as a painter, a different element was added. A keen desire for knowledge, guiding his actions in life, spurred him onward. Conscious of this dominant impulse, he fancifully described himself in a Platonic allegory. He had passed beneath overhanging cliffs on his way to a great cavern. On bended knees, peering through its darkness, fear and desire had overwhelmed him—fear of the menacing darkness of the cavern, and desire