Leon Battista Alberti (1404–72) was an Italian architect, humanist, poet, painter, linguist, and art critic—an epitome of the Renaissance Man. His book On Painting (1435) was the first account of the theory of perspective in the Renaissance.
Born in Genoa, Alberti worked in Florence from 1428 and became one of the best-known figures of the Renaissance. His Della Pittura (1435, “On Painting”) contains the first description of perspective construction. Influenced by the Roman architect and civil engineer Vitruvius, he wrote De re aedificatoria, a treatise on architecture (10 vols., 1485,) which stimulated interest in antique Roman architecture.
Alberti’s designs include the external parts of San Francesco in Rimini, the façade (unfinished) of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, and the Church of San Sebastiano in Mantua. They are among the best examples of the purely classical style. Alberti was also skilled as a musician, painter, poet, and philosopher.
Italian architect and architectural historian Franco Borsi wrote Leon Battista Alberti: The Complete Works (1989.)
More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Leon Battista Alberti
When I investigate and when I discover that the forces of the heavens and the planets are within ourselves, then truly I seem to be living among the gods.
—Leon Battista Alberti
Topics: Heaven
A man can do all things if he but wills them.
—Leon Battista Alberti
Topics: Will Power, Will, Willpower
Beauty: The adjustment of all parts proportionately so that one cannot add or subtract or change without impairing the harmony of the whole.
—Leon Battista Alberti
Topics: Beauty
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