Leonardo.
LVII
I wish to do something purely Greek; I feed my eyes on the antique statues, I mean even to imitate
some of them. The Greeks never scrupled to reproduce a composition, a movement, a type already received and used. They put all their care, all their art, into perfecting an idea which had been used by others before them. They thought, and thought rightly, that in the arts the manner of rendering and expressing an idea matters more than the idea itself.
To give a clothing, a perfect form to one's thought is to be an artist ... it is the only way.
Well, I have done my best and I hope to attain my object.
L. David.