The true work of art is but a shadow of the divine perfection.
An artist does his most difficult work when he steps back from the blank canvas and thinks about what he is going to create.
If we have been pleased with life, we should not be displeased with death, since it comes from the hand of the same master.
An artist must have his measuring tools not in the hand, but in the eye.
So take care of your life and take notice and be observant, for the number of widows is always far greater than the number of widowers.
Let whoever may have attained to so much as to have the power of drawing know that he holds a great treasure.
Gazing on beautiful things acts on my soul.
Lord, make me see thy glory in every place.
After four tortured years, painting more than 400 over life-sized figures, I felt as old and as weary as Jeremiah. I was only 37, yet friends did not recognize the old man I had become.
I am a poor man and of little worth, who is laboring in that art that God has given me in order to extend my life as long as possible.
I created a vision of David in my mind and simply carved away everything that was not David.
He who does not master the nude cannot understand the principles of architecture.
Good painting is nothing else but a copy of the perfections of God and a reminder of His painting. Finally, good painting is a music and a melody which intellect only can appreciate, and with great difficulty.
No one has mastery, Before he is at the end, Of his art and his life.
Serene I fold my hands and wait.
Already at sixteen, my mind was a battlefield: my love of pagan beauty, the male nude, at war with my religious faith. A polarity of themes and forms: one spiritual, the other earthly.
Poets and painters have the power to dare, I mean to dare to do whatever they may approve of...
There is no greater harm than that of time wasted.
Many believe – and I believe – that I have been designated for this work by God. In spite of my old age, I do not want to give it up; I work out of love for God and I put all my hope in Him.
To touch is to give life.