"If the painter wishes to see enchanting beauties, he has the power to produce them. If he wishes to see monstrosities, whether terrifying or ludicrous and laughable, or pitiful, he has the power and authority to create them. If he wishes to produce towns or deserts, if in the hot season he wants cool and shady places, or in the cold season, warm places, he can make them. If he wants valleys, if from the high mountain tops he wants to survey vast stretches of country, if beyond he wants to see the horizon on the sea, he has the power to create all this. Whatever exists in the universe, whether in essence, in act, or in imagination, the painter has first in his mind and then in his hands. His hands are of such excellence that they can present to our view simultaneously whatever well- proportioned harmonies real things exhibit piecemeal."- Leonardo da Vinci.