Leonardo Da Vinci

``The first object of the painter is to make a flat plane appear as a body in relief and projecting from that plane.'' -- Leonardo da Vinci Since Renaissance means ``new birth'', it is obvious that it cannot stand still. Once something is born, it begins to grow. But never has there been growth as lovely as that of painting as it matured into the High Renaissance. The High Renaissance dealt with the realism …

…these surround and illuminate the sitter. She is totally fleshly and totally impermeable to the artist. He observes, rapt by her perfection of form, and shows us the thin veil of her upper body and the delicate flushing of her throat. What she is truly like she conceals; what Leonardo reveals to us is precisely this concealment, a self-absorption that spares no outward glance. The piece has a sense of depth that is very interesting.