Let every man who is here understand this well: design, which by another
name is called drawing, and consists of it, is the fount and body of
painting and sculpture and architecture and of every other kind of
painting, and the root of all sciences. Let whoever may have attained to
so much as to have the power of drawing know that he holds a great
treasure; he will be able to make figures higher than any tower, either
in colours or carved from the block, and he will not be able to find a
wall or enclosure which does not appear circumscribed and small to his
brave imagination. And he will be able to paint in fresco in the manner
of old Italy, with all the mixtures and varieties of colour usually
employed in it. He will be able to paint in oils very suavely with more
knowledge, daring, and patience than painters. And finally, on a small
piece of parchment he will be most perfect and great, as in all other
manners of painting. Because great, very great is the power of design
and drawing.
_Michael Angelo._