Yet Cubism and Modern art weren't either scientific or intellectual; they were visual and came from the eye and mind of one of the greatest geniuses in art history. Pablo Picasso, born in Spain, was a child prodigy who was recognized as such by his art-teacher father, who ably led him along. The small Museo de Picasso in Barcelona is devoted primarily to his early works, which include strikingly realistic renderings of casts of ancient sculpture.

 This book is a collection of his works.

 The works of Picasso published in the present volume cover those early periods which, based on considerations of style, have been classified as Steinlenian (or Lautrecian), Stained Glass, Blue, Circus, Rose, Classic, African,, Proto-Cubist.Cubist... From the viewpoint of the "science of man", these periods correspond to theyears 1900-1914, when Picasso was between nineteen and thirty-three, the time whichsaw the formation and flowering of his unique personality.

 But a scientific approach to Picasso's eeuvre has long been in use: his work has been divided into periods, explained both by creative contacts and reflections of biographical events. If Picasso's work has for us the general significance of universal human experience, this is due to the fact that it expresses, with the most exhaustive completeness, man's internal life and all the laws of its development. Only by approaching his eeuvre in this way can we hope to understand its rules, the logic of its evolution, the transition from one putative period to another.

 Picasso was born a Spaniard and, so they say, began to draw before he could speak. As an infant he was instinctively attracted to the artist's tools. In early childhood he could spend hours tracing his first pictures in the sand. This early self-expression held the promise of a rare gift.

 Maaga must be mentioned, for it was there, on 25 October 1881, that Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born and there that he spent the first ten years of his life. Malaga was the cradle of his spirit, the land of his childhood, the soil in which many of the themes and images of his mature work are rooted. He first saw a picture of Hercules in Malaga's municipal museum, witnessed bullfights on the Plaza de Toros, and at home watched the cooing doves that served as models for his father. The young Pablo drew all of this and by the age of eight took up brush and oils to paint a bullfight. As for school, Pablo hated it from the first day and opposed it furiously.