Now since we cannot attain to the very best, shall we give up our research altogether? This beastly thought we do not accept. For, men having good and bad before them, it behooves a reasonable human being to concentrate on the better. So then let us ask how a better figure may be made.

– Leon Battista Alberti, quoted in Erwin Panofsky: ‘The Life and Art of Albrecht Durer’, 1955