Hello All,
Rembrandt had it, Leonardo Da Vinci had it as well. There is a depth to painting that in my opinion doesn't exist in todays artists. I believe industrial age paints and mediums are one reason for that. Another, is modern "conveniences." While writing about the face of President Lincoln, and I'm paraphrasing because I don't have the book with me, Walt Whitman wrote that there is a certain quality to the President's face that does not come through in the portraits done of Lincoln. It would take one of the portrait artists of the past to reproduce it. This comes from a passage entitled "Lincoln's Portrait." It can be found in "Specimen Days," or "Democratic Vistas." Both books often accompany the more well known, "Leaves of Grass."
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