Il motto ‘Less is more’ è generalmente attribuito a Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, architetto e designer tedesco ricordato insieme a Le Corbusier, Frank Lloyd Wright e Alvar Aalto come maestro del Movimento Moderno e del Minimalismo.
La frase deriva in realtà dalla poesia di Robert Browning del 1855 ‘Andrea del Sarto’.
To paint a little thing like that you smeared
Carelessly passing with your robes afloat,--
Yet do much less, so much less, Someone says,
(I know his name, no matter)--so much less!
Well, less is more, Lucrezia: I am judged.
There burns a truer light of God in them,
In their vexed beating stuffed and stopped-up brain,
Heart, or whate'er else, than goes on to prompt
This low-pulsed forthright craftsman's hand of mine.’
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