«Was Leonardo’s pronounced vocation for scientific
research a help or a hindrance to him as an artist? It is
usual to quote him as an example of the possibilities
of art and science allied. In him, it is affirmed, active
genius received a new impetus from the analytic
faculty; reason reinforced the imagination and the
emotions. […] A profound savant and an incomparable
creator, he is the only man in the history of mankind
who has at once penetrated into the most radiant
beauty, who has united the science of Aristotle with
the art of Phidias.»