Arts & artists - can they be compared?

I chanced upon a quote of Leonardo Da Vinci which said, “The poet ranks far below the painter in the representation of visible things, and far below the musician in that of invisible things.”

He had the right to compare poetry with painting and music as he was a gigantic fusion of being a scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, painter, sculptor, architect, botanist, musician, poet and writer.

A deep thought on his statement triggered off the following points in my mind.....

• Even a 3 month old baby can respond to lilting music
• Even a 3 year old appreciates painting
• But sometimes even a 30 year old doesn’t show interest in poetry

They are true for a common man whose senses are intact.

What about those deaf, dumb and blind? Where do they stand in the regions of visible and invisible things?

A deaf can never feel the musical notes on his ears. He is not aware that music truly surpasses the language barriers and stirs the listening heart expressing its cosmic unity of souls. He is even deprived of enjoying the rustling of leaves, roaring of waves, pounding of heart, laughter of a baby, whack on the head, tapping on the stagnant water, rushing of rivers, clapping of hands, lighting of a matchstick, …….. His world is one of meditative state of silence which a spiritual man wants to achieve. In fact, forms and frames take him to far greater heights.

A born blind on the other hand is deprived of enjoying the beautiful sceneries, landscapes, waterfalls, clouds, oceans, waves, mountains, stars, sky, man, woman, physical display of emotions…….. Have we ever bothered to find out how does he shape his world of beings and things? I often wonder on these lines as he has no base to construct anything; as his world is one of the unknown horizons. So, the magic of painting has no place in his life whereas his extraordinary sensory organs can capture music to make him travel quickly beyond his dark world.

What if one is blind and deaf? How did Helen Keller manage to live in a world without sounds and images? What her life would have been if not for Anne Sullivan? I dread to think of such a situation for myself as I could not have differentiated between a lion and a tiger till my death.

While painting is reachable for deaf and music for blind, writing is one such art form which can give life to both. And poetry is a branch of it.

Poetry has its own world of charms and dreams, imaginations and beauty, subtleties and creativity.

Shakespeare says,

“The poet’s eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And, as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet’s pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.”


The only eligibility criterion for a reader to capture the poet’s frenzied imagination is the language.

Don’t we all (that includes deaf & blind) learn at least one language in our lifetime?

The irony is, Da Vinci compared artists of different arts. Just like one needs to master the language to become a laudable poet, did he not know that the strokes of a painter should also be free-flowing and musical notes of a musician should be one of exemplary perfection? What is a visible thing and an invisible thing according to him?

So long one has brain, so long one’s thought processes are alive, imagination and perfection are necessary for any art form, is it not?

As for me, where your interest lies, that’s where matters begin and end whether it is music or painting or poetry. You can trip down to visible and invisible things as per your wish in your own world.

Let me clarify here that this piece of writing is not to attack or defend Da Vinci's statement. I simply adore him for what he was, as it is said that the world is yet to see such a genius still. And he has a right to hold this opinion from his viewpoint.

It is mainly intended to explore different worlds of different people capable of mastering different arts in their presentation and representation.