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If you call painting dumb poetry, the painter may call poetry blind painting. LEONARDO DA VINCI, The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci It is easier to resist at the beginning than at the end. LEONARDO DA VINCI, Notebooks All knowledge which ends in words will die as quickly as it came to life. LEONARDO DA VINCI, Thoughts on Art and Life Wisdom is the daughter of experience. LEONARDO DA VINCI, Thoughts on Art and Life Just as iron which is not used grows rusty, and water putrefies and freezes in the cold, so the mind of which no use is made is spoilt. LEONARDO DA VINCI, Thoughts on Art and Life Nature appears to have been the cruel stepmother rather than the mother of many animals. LEONARDO DA VINCI, Thoughts on Art and Life Experience, the interpreter between creative nature and the human race, teaches the action of nature among mortals: how under the constraint of necessity she cannot act otherwise than as reason, who steers her helm, teaches her to act. LEONARDO DA VINCI, Thoughts on Ar...

Iron rusts from disuse, stagnant water loses its purity, and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigors of the mind. Leonardo da Vinci The color of the object illuminated partakes of the color of that which illuminates it. Leonardo da Vinci He who possesses most must be most afraid of loss. Leonardo da Vinci A good painter has two main objects to paint, man and the intention of his soul. The former is easy, the latter hard as he has to represent it by the attitude and movement of the limbs. Leonardo da Vinci Where the spirit does not work with the hand there is no art. Leonardo da Vinci One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself. Leonardo da Vinci Poor is the pupil who does not surpass his master. Leonardo da Vinci

Few works of art have enjoyed as much attention as Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa“. The painting by the archetypical Renaissance Man may be diminutive in size, but not in stature. Discussions about the secret behind Mona Lisa’s mysterious smile continue to this day and artists the world over have tried to recreate this seminal piece in a variety of different ways over the years. We have seen Mona Lisa replicas made from coffee cups, toast, even motherboard components. We have even seen an exquisite Mona Lisa watch. But a Chinese jewellery collector has gone one up on them all. The unidentified artist has created a Mona Lisa replica using precious stones and jewels – about 100,000 carats worth. According to reports, the Chinese jewellery collector has spent the last five years creating this bejewelled replica of what is perhaps da Vinci’s most popular painting. There is no question that this Mona Lisa replica is one of a kind, even in a world that continues to be besotted ...