“.. he [= Michelangelo] was a good man, but he did not know how to paint.”

—  El Greco

Marina Lambraki-Plaka, El Greco - The Greek, p. 47–49; as cited on Wikipedia/El Greco
Quote of El Greco's response, when he was later asked what he thought about the Italian artist Michelangelo

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote ".. he [= Michelangelo] was a good man, but he did not know how to paint." by El Greco?
El Greco photo
El Greco 9
Greek painter, sculptor and architect 1541–1614

Related quotes

Ted Hughes photo

“The Iron Man came to the top of the cliff. How far had he walked? Nobody knows. Where did he come from? Nobody knows. How was he made? Nobody knows.”

Ted Hughes book The Iron Man

Source: The Iron Man (1968), Ch. 1 : The Coming of the Iron Man
Context: The Iron Man came to the top of the cliff. How far had he walked? Nobody knows. Where did he come from? Nobody knows. How was he made? Nobody knows. Taller than a house the Iron Man stood at the top of the cliff, at the very brink, in the darkness.

Quentin Crisp photo

“Michelangelo worked from within. He described not the excitements of touching or seeing a man but the excitement of being Man.”

Quentin Crisp book The Naked Civil Servant

Source: The Naked Civil Servant (1968), Ch. 19

Francesco Petrarca photo

“Hannibal was victorious, but he did not know later how to make good use of his victorious fortune.”

Francesco Petrarca Il Canzoniere

Vinse Hanibàl, et non seppe usar poi
ben la vittoriosa sua ventura.
Canzone 103, lines 1–2
Il Canzoniere (c. 1351–1353), To Laura in Life

Fernand Léger photo

“There was no telling who this head, or this leg, or that arm, belonged to... So I scattered the limbs in my painting and realized that in this way I was getting much closer to the truth than Michelangelo did when he concentrated on every separate muscle.”

Fernand Léger (1881–1955) French painter

as quoted from the exhibition catalogue Fernand Legér, Paris, 1956
Quotes of Fernand Leger, 1950's

Witter Bynner photo

“A man who knows how little he knows is well, a man who knows how much he knows is sick.”

Witter Bynner (1881–1968) American author

The Way of Life, According to Laotzu, 1944.

Dan Brown photo

“The more man learned, the more he realized he did not know.”

Dan Brown book The Lost Symbol

Source: The Lost Symbol

Eugène Delacroix photo

“He [ Michelangelo ] did not know a single one of the feelings of man, not one of his passions. When he was making an arm or a leg, it seems as if he were thinking only of that arm or leg and was not giving the slightest consideration to the way it relates with the action of the figure to which it belongs, much less to the action of the picture as a whole... Therein lies his great merit; he brings a sense of the grand and the terrible into even an isolated limb.”

Eugène Delacroix (1798–1863) French painter

quote in 1854, on the Italian Renaissance artist [[w:Michelangelo|Michelangelo, as cited in Artists on Art – from the 14th – 20th centuries, ed. by Robert Goldwater and Marco Treves; Pantheon Books, 1972, London, p. 235
1831 - 1863

Margaret Atwood photo

“I did not know how to paint or even what to paint, but I knew I had to begin.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Source: CAT'S EYE.

Voltaire photo

“Every man is guilty of all the good he did not do.”

Voltaire (1694–1778) French writer, historian, and philosopher
Giorgio Morandi photo

“He [ Jackson Pollock ] just jumps in before he knows how to swim. [when Morandi sees paintings of Pollock for the first time]”

Giorgio Morandi (1890–1964) Italian painter

in Morandi 1894 – 1964, published by Museo d'Arte Moderna di Bologna, ed: M. C. Bandera & R. Miracco - 2008; p. 298
1945 - 1964

Related topics