Caravaggio

All art is but imitation of nature.

I paint what I see.

The more I paint, the more I realize I know nothing.

I want to paint the truth, not what people want to see.

I am not interested in painting angels, but in painting men.

The work of a painter is nothing but the imitation of nature.

I do not believe in the ideal, but in the real.

I seek only to represent the truth of things.

I have never seen an angel, so I paint what I see.

My art is not about beauty, but about truth.

I am a painter of the dark, for the dark is where the truth lies.

Light is everything. It reveals and conceals.

I paint with my eyes, not with my mind.

The greatest art is that which is closest to life.

I do not paint what I imagine, but what I see.

My models are the people of the streets, the taverns, and the poor.

I want to shock people with the truth.

Art should be a mirror of life, not an escape from it.

I am a man of my time, and I paint the world as it is.

The beauty of art lies in its honesty.