ADDENDUM ON da VINCI

Biographies have always been fascinating for me to search out. Here is another clarification on Leonardo da Vinci who first appeared in my Blog of July 16, 2008, under the title of "Sayings of the Sages." In it I explained that in 1503 he started painting the Mona Lisa and quoted one biographer as saying that his model was the wife of a Florentine merchant. My Blog earlier this week suggested that according to Dr. Lillian Schwartz of Bell Labs who had digitized the artist's self portrait along with that of the Mona Lisa, flipped the self-portrait, and merged the two together in a computer program. The features of the faces aligned perfectly suggesting that he may have been the model himself. This seems reasonable since the "New Standard Encyclopedia" says he worked on the Mona Lisa painting over a period of sixteen years. Indeed, we seem to have been left with another riddle. When one is ever in Paris it would be interesting to stop at the Louvre and search out that knowing smile of the Mona Lisa and decide for ourselves.

The short "Sayings" left by da Vinci and others are collectibles for me.
The one I chose for him in my July 16, 2008 Blog was: "Vitality and beauty are gifts of nature for those who live according to its laws."

Here are a few more of his quotes:
"I obey Thee, Lord, first for the love I ought, in all reason to bear Thee; secondly for that Thou canst shorten or prolong the lives of men."

"Patience serves us against insults precisely as clothes do against the cold. For if you multiply your garments as the cold increases, that cold cannot hurt you."

"He turns not back who is bound to a star."

"I have offended God and mankind because my work did not reach the quality it should have."

Leonardo's paintings, writings, sketches and wisdom in general, continue to honor the divine after five hundred years.