Leonardo da Vinci | Nativity paintings

Giorgio Vasari🎨, in the enlarged edition of Lives of the Artists (1568) introduced his chapter on Leonardo with the following words:

"In the normal course of events many men and women are born with remarkable talents; but occasionally, in a way that transcends nature, a single person is marvellously endowed by Heaven with beauty, grace and talent in such abundance that he leaves other men far behind, all his actio ns seem inspired and indeed everything he does clearly comes from God rather than from human skill".

"Everyone acknowledged that this was true of Leonardo da Vinci, an artist of outstanding physical beauty, who displayed infinite grace in everything that he did and who cultivated his genius so brilliantly that all problems he studied he solved with ease".

«Grandissimi doni si veggono piovere dagli influssi celesti ne’ corpi umani molte volte naturalmente, e sopra naturali, talvolta, strabocchevolmente accozzarsi in un corpo solo bellezza, grazia e virtù, in una maniera, che dovunque si volge quel tale, ciascuna sua azzione è tanto divina, che lasciandosi dietro tutti gl’altri uomini, manifestamente si fa conoscere per cosa (come ella è) largita da Dio e non acquistata per arte umana. Questo lo videro gli uomini in Lionardo da Vinci».

- Giorgio Vasari🎨, Le vite de' più eccellenti pittori, scultori ed architettori, 1568