Good Things From Italy - Le Cose Buone d'Italia

Experts claim that Leonardo's Mona Lisa is, together with the similar Prado Mona Lisa, the world's first three-dimensional artwork [...]

It is sometimes related that, while the young Leonardo da Vinci was an apprentice to Florentine painter Andrea del Verrocchio, the two collaborated on a painting. But when Verrocchio saw the beautiful angel that da Vinci had depicted holding the robes of Christ, he put down his brush and never painted again. To celebrate the life of da Vinci – painter, sculptor, musician, architect, writer, botanist, inventor, engineer, and anatomist par excellence - here are 15 quotes from the Renaissance man himself.

1. Progress: “Poor is the pupil that does not surpass his master.”
2. Mental waste: “Iron rusts from disuse; stagnant water loses its purity and in cold weather becomes frozen; even so does inaction sap the vigor of the mind.”
5. Modern art? “Many are they who have a taste and love for drawing, but no talent; and this will be discernible in boys who are not diligent and never finish their drawings with shading.”
7. Truth endures: “Truth at last cannot be hidden. Dissimulation is of no avail. Dissimulation is to no purpose before so great a judge. Falsehood puts on a mask. Nothing is hidden under the sun.” 
9. Be reasonable: “The senses are of the earth; Reason, stands apart in contemplation.”
11. The fallacy of opinion: “The greatest deception men suffer is from their own opinions.” 
12. Keep your eyes on the road: “He who walks straight rarely falls.”
13. Humility: “We see the most striking example of humility in the lamb which will submit to any animal; and when they are given for food to imprisoned lions they are as gentle to them as to their own mother, so that very often it has been seen that the lions forbear to kill them.”

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If you're planning to visit Milan this summer, don't miss an exhibit that just sold 40,000 tickets in its first 40 days - Leonardo3 – The World of Leonardo. This interactive exhibit focuses on in interpreting 5,000 pages of Leonardo DaVinci's notebooks and runs through July 31 in the Sale del Re in Piazza della Scala (across from the Galleria). 
This show presents the results of research carried out over the last ten years by Mario Taddei and Edoardo Zanon. Its purpose is to highlight Leonardo’s work not just as “artist” but also as “engineer” and help us understand what he wrote, what he designed, the studies he made for his machines and how he worked.