The heroes of this book are 10 great artists, 10 geniuses who saw the world differently from other people, and spoke about it not in words, but in color, image, and flavor, for whom painting was “passionate silence.” What makes a person great? Where is the only thing that raises him above other people, leaving his descendants with an understanding of their greatness? What do the characters in the book have in common? Van Gogh was as poor as a church mouse, Picasso left a million-dollar inheritance. Dürer remained childless, Rubens had five children. Michelangelo never married, Rembrandt had two beloved wives, Bosch spent his entire life in his hometown, Goya did not like to sit still. Famous masters appear before the reader not as abstract great names, but as normal living people who share the same joys and sorrows as ordinary mortals. Well, only one thing set them apart from the crowd and raised them above gossip and gossip - their boundless devotion to art and enormous work. It was not they who led art. It subjugated them, forced them to serve the Eternal and made them great...