“He was a perfectionist faced with challenges other artists would have disregarded but that he could not. So he put down his brushes. That behavior meant he would never again receive a public commission. But it is also what allowed him to go down in history as an obsessed genius rather than merely a reliable master painter. Leonardo and Michelangelo had become luminaries, paving the way for other artists—who until then had rarely even signed their work—to do the same. When the pope summoned Michelangelo, and when the Milanese vied with the Florentines over the services of Leonardo, it was recognition that super-artists had their own recognizable style, artistic personality, and individual genius. Instead of being treated as somewhat interchangeable members of the craftsman’s class, the best artists were now treated as singular stars. Isaacson, Walter. Leonardo da Vinci (pp. 379-380). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition. Isaacson, Walter. Leonardo da Vinci (pp. 378-379). Simon & Schuster. Kindle Edition. ”
