The idea is Michelangelo's, but this is a modern English rewording. John Addington Symonds quotes a 1548 letter to his nephew Lionardo: “I was never either sculptor or painter in the way of one who keeps a shop.”
“I was never the kind of painter or sculptor who kept a shop” — Modern wording of Michelangelo’s 1548 letter to Lionardo; exact English translator unconfirmed. · Verbatim: “I was never either sculptor or painter in the way of one who keeps a shop.”
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In context
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Provenance
The source
Original document
Letter to nephew Lionardo, 1548, as quoted by Symonds
English text checked
John Addington Symonds, The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1893)
Popular version
Shorter modern English wording; translator unconfirmed
I was never either sculptor or painter in the way of one who keeps a shop.
Wikiquote ↗ records the shorter circulating translation; it is not identical to the older English text.
The excerpt uses Symonds's nineteenth-century English version, which is public domain. The exact modern translation in the displayed search quotation is unconfirmed, so no blanket clearance is asserted.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
✓The idea is Michelangelo's, but this is a modern English rewording. John Addington Symonds quotes a 1548 letter to his nephew Lionardo: “I was never either sculptor or painter in the way of one who keeps a shop.”
Context
Why it mattered
In the fuller letter, Michelangelo objects to a form of address and invokes his family's honor while distinguishing papal service from keeping a shop. Symonds's account ↗ gives the social-status context that disappears when the sentence is reduced to a general statement about artistic independence.
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Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
Michelangelo's career ranged from sculpture to the Sistine Chapel ceiling and architectural commissions. His letters also show him guarding his name and family's social standing, including his objection to being addressed as a shopkeeping craftsman.
For writers & researchers
Cite this
The primary source (Chicago)
Michelangelo. Letter to Lionardo Buonarroti, 1548, quoted and translated in John Addington Symonds, The Life of Michelangelo Buonarroti (1893). Modern displayed wording has no confirmed translator.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘I was never the kind of painter or sculptor who kept a shop’?” Last verified 9 Nov 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/i-was-never-the-kind-of-painter-or-sculptor-who-kept-a-shop/