But if it so happens. . a work. . under pain of otherwise becoming shameful or false, requires fantasy. . [and that] certain limbs or elements of a figure are altered by borrowing from other species, for example transforming into a dolphin the hinder end of a griffon or a stag. . these alterations will be excellent and the substitution, however unreal it may seem, deserves to be declared a fine invention in the genre of the monstrous. When a painter introduces into this kind of work of art chimerae and other imaginary beings in order to divert and entertain the senses and also to captivate the eyes of mortals who long to see unclassified and impossible things, he shows himself more respectful of reason than if he produced the usual figures of men or of animals. Michelangelo Buonarroti
About This Quote

The artist Salvatore Diziani had a love of all kinds of animals. He depicted a dolphin transforming into a stag and a griffon in his painting "The Hunt of the Unicorn". In this painting, the artist is clearly trying to entertain his audience. Instead of depicting a stag, he wanted to paint a unicorn.

Instead of a griffon, he wanted to paint a dolphin. In either case, these animals are imaginary and have no relation to their real-life counterparts. In the same way that the artist was using fantasy to entertain people, he was also using fantasy to entertain his audience.

He was trying to distract them from reality by creating his own fantastical world where anything could happen.

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More Quotes By Michelangelo Buonarroti
  1. No thought is born in me that does not bear the image of death.
  2. If I am more alive because love burns and chars me, as a fire, given wood or wind, feels new elation, it's that he who lays me low is my salvation, and invigorates the more, the more he scars me.
  3. Dear to me is sleep: still more, being made of stone, While pain and guilt still linger here below, Blindness and numbness--these please me alone; Then do not wake me, keep your voices low.
  4. As when, O lady mine, With chiselled touch The stone unhewn and cold Becomes a living mould, The more the marble wastes, The more the statue grows.
  5. AS YOU GIVE OUT SO SHALL YOU RECEIVE.
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