Leon Battista Alberti

However, according to James Beck, "to single out one of Leon Battista's 'fields' over others as somehow functionally independent and self-sufficient is of no help at all to any effort to characterize Alberti's extensive explorations in the fine arts". Although Alberti is known mostly as an artist, he was also a mathematician and made significant contributions to that field. Among the most famous buildings he designed are the churches of San Sebastiano (1460) and Sant'Andrea (1472), both in Mantua. Alberti's life was told in Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects.

• Name — Leon Battista Alberti • Born — 14 February 1404 • Birthplace — Genoa, Republic of Genoa • Died — 25 April 1472 • Place of death — Rome, Papal States • Field — Architecture, linguistics, poetry • Movement — Italian Renaissance • Works — Tempio Malatestiano, Palazzo Rucellai, Santa Maria Novella, Basilica of Sant'Andrea

• Illustration — A portrait of Alberti by Filippino Lippi is thought to exist in the Brancacci Chapel, as part of Lippi's completion of the Masaccio painting, the Raising of the Son of Theophilus and St. Peter Enthroned. Leon Battista Alberti was born in 1404 in Genoa. His mother was Bianca Fieschi. His father, Lorenzo di Benedetto Alberti, was a wealthy Florentine who had been exiled from his own city but was allowed to return in 1428. Alberti was sent to boarding school in Padua, then studied law at Bologna. He lived for a time in Florence, then in 1431 travelled to Rome, where he took holy orders and entered the service of the papal court. During this time, he studied the ancient ruins, which excited his interest in architecture and strongly influenced the form of the buildings that he designed. Leon Battista Alberti was thought to be a tall, strong athlete skilled in horseback riding. gifted in many ways. He distinguished himself as a writer while still a child at school, and by the age of twenty had written a play that was successfully passed off as a genuine piece of Classical literature. In 1435 he began his first major written work, Della pittura, which was inspired by the burgeoning pictorial art in Florence in the early fifteenth century. In this work, he analysed the nature of painting and explored the elements of perspective, composition, and colour. In 1438, he began to focus more on architecture and was encouraged by the Marchese Leonello d'Este of Ferrara, for whom he built a small triumphal arch to support an equestrian statue of Leonello's father. In 1447 Alberti became architectural advisor to Pope Nicholas V and was involved in several projects at the Vatican.

His first major architectural commission was in 1446 for the façade of the Rucellai Palace in Florence. This was followed in 1450 by a commission from Sigismondo Malatesta to transform the Gothic church of San Francesco in Rimini into a memorial chapel, the Tempio Malatestiano. In Florence, he designed the upper parts of the façade for the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella, famously bridging the nave and lower aisles with two ornately inlaid scrolls, solving a visual problem and setting a precedent to be followed by architects of churches for four hundred years. In 1452, he completed De re aedificatoria, a treatise on architecture, using as its basis the work of Vitruvius and influenced by the ancient roman buildings. The work was not published until 1485. It was followed in 1464 by his less influential work, De statua, in which he examines sculpture. Alberti's only known sculpture is a self-portrait medallion, sometimes attributed to Pisanello. • Illustration — Palazzo Rucellai Alberti was employed to design two churches in Mantua, San Sebastiano, which was never completed and for which Alberti's intention can only be speculated upon, and the Basilica of Sant'Andrea. The design for the latter church was completed in 1471, a year before Alberti's death: the construction was completed after his death and is considered as his most significant work.

As an artist, Alberti distinguished himself from the contemporary ordinary craftsmen educated in workshops. He was a humanist who studied Aristotle and Plotinus. He was among the rapidly growing group of intellectuals and artists who at that time were supported by the courts of nobility. As a member of a noble family and as part of the Roman curia, Alberti enjoyed special status. He was a welcomed guest at the Este court in Ferrara, and spent time with the soldier-prince Federico III da Montefeltro in Urbino. The Duke of Urbino was a shrewd military commander, who generously funded artists. Alberti planned to dedicate his treatise on architecture to him. Among Alberti's minor but pioneering studies were an essay on cryptography, De componendis cifris, and the first Italian grammar. He collaborated with the Florentine cosmographer Paolo Toscanelli in astronomy, a science close to geography at that time. He also wrote a small Latin work on geography, Descriptio urbis Romae (The Panorama of the City of Rome). Just a few years before his death, Alberti completed De iciarchia (On Ruling the Household), a dialogue about Florence during the Medici rule. Alberti took holy orders and never married. He loved animals and had a pet dog, a mongrel, about whom he wrote a panegyric (Canis). Vasari describes Alberti as "an admirable citizen, a man of culture... a friend of talented men, open and courteous with everyone. He always lived honourably and like the gentleman he was." Alberti died in Rome on 25 April 1472 at the age of 68.

Alberti did not concern himself with engineering, and very few of his major projects were built. As a designer and a student of Vitruvius and of ancient Roman architecture, he studied column and lintel based architecture, from a visual rather than structural viewpoint. He correctly employed the Classical orders, unlike his contemporary, Brunelleschi, who used the Classical column and pilaster in a free interpretation. Alberti reflected on the social effects of architecture, and was attentive to the urban landscape. This is demonstrated by his inclusion, at the Rucellai Palace, of a continuous bench for seating at the level of the basement. Alberti anticipated the principle of street hierarchy, with wide main streets connected to secondary streets, and buildings of equal height. In Rome he was employed by Pope Nicholas V for the restoration of the Roman aqueduct of Acqua Vergine, which debouched into a simple basin designed by Alberti, which was later replaced by the Baroque Trevi Fountain. Some researchers suggested that the Villa Medici in Fiesole might have been designed by Alberti, rather than by Michelozzo. This hilltop residence commissioned by Giovanni de' Medici, Cosimo il Vecchio's second son, with its view over the city, is sometimes considered the first example of a Renaissance villa: it reflects the writing by Alberti about country residential buildings as "villa suburbana". The building later inspired numerous other similar projects buildings from the end of the fifteenth century.

The Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini (1447, 1453–60) is the rebuilding of a Gothic church. The façade, with its dynamic play of forms, was left incomplete.

The design of the façade of the Palazzo Rucellai (1446–51) was one of several commissioned by the Rucellai family. The design overlays a grid of shallow pilasters and cornices in classical style onto rusticated masonry, and is surmounted by a heavy cornice. The inner courtyard has Corinthian columns. The palace introduced set the use of classical building elements in civic buildings in Florence, and became very influential. The work was executed by Bernardo Rossellino.

At Santa Maria Novella, Florence, between (1448–70) the upper façade was constructed to the design of Alberti. It was a challenging task, as the lower level already had three doorways and six Gothic niches containing tombs and employing the polychrome marble typical of Florentine churches, such as San Miniato al Monte and the Baptistery of Florence. The design also incorporates an ocular window that was already in place. Alberti introduced Classical features around the portico and spread the polychromy over the entire façade in a manner that includes Classical proportions and elements such as pilasters, cornices, and a pediment in the Classical style, ornamented with a sunburst in tesserae, rather than sculpture. The best known feature of this typically aisled church is the manner in which Alberti has solved the problem of visually bridging the different levels of the central nave and much lower side aisles. He employed two large scrolls, which were to become a standard feature of church façades in the later Renaissance, Baroque, and Classical Revival buildings.

• Illustration — Piazza Pio II in Pienza, looking toward the Palazzo Piccolomini Alberti is considered to have been the consultant for the design of the Piazza Pio II, Pienza. The village, previously called Corsignano, was redesigned beginning around 1459. It was the birthplace of Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini, Pope Pius II, in whose employ Alberti served. Pius II wanted to use the village as a retreat, but needed for it to reflect the dignity of his position. The piazza is a trapezoid shape defined by four buildings, with a focus on Pienza Cathedral and passages on either side opening onto a landscape view. The principal residence, Palazzo Piccolomini, is on the western side. It has three stories, articulated by pilasters and entablature courses, with a twin-lighted cross window set within each bay. This structure is similar to Alberti's Palazzo Rucellai in Florence and other later palaces. Noteworthy is the internal court of the palazzo. The back of the palace, to the south, is defined by loggia on all three floors that overlook an enclosed Italian Renaissance garden with Giardino all'italiana era modifications, and spectacular views into the distant landscape of the Val d'Orcia and Pope Pius's beloved Mount Amiata beyond. Below this garden is a vaulted stable that had stalls for a hundred horses. The design, which radically transformed the center of the town, included a palace for the pope, a church, a town hall, and a building for the bishops who would accompany the Pope on his trips. Pienza is considered an early example of Renaissance urban planning.

The Basilica of Sant'Andrea, Mantua was begun in 1471, the year before Alberti's death. It was brought to completion and is his most significant work employing the triumphal arch motif, both for its façade and interior, and influencing many works that were to follow. Alberti perceived the role of architect as designer. Unlike Brunelleschi, he had no interest in the construction, leaving the practicalities to builders and the oversight to others.

• San Sebastiano, Mantua, (begun 1458) the unfinished façade of which has promoted much speculation as to Alberti's intention • Sepolcro Rucellai in San Pancrazio, 1467) • The Tribune for Santissima Annunziata, Florence (1470, completed with alterations, 1477)

Giorgio Vasari, who argued that historical progress in art reached its peak in Michelangelo, emphasized Alberti's scholarly achievements, not his artistic talents: "He spent his time finding out about the world and studying the proportions of antiquities; but above all, following his natural genius, he concentrated on writing rather than on applied work." In On Painting, Alberti uses the expression "We Painters", but as a painter, or sculptor, he was a dilettante. "In painting Alberti achieved nothing of any great importance or beauty", wrote Vasari. "The very few paintings of his that are extant are far from perfect, but this is not surprising since he devoted himself more to his studies than to draughtsmanship." Jacob Burckhardt portrayed Alberti in The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy as a truly universal genius. "And Leonardo Da Vinci was to Alberti as the finisher to the beginner, as the master to the dilettante. Would only that Vasari's work were here supplemented by a description like that of Alberti! The colossal outlines of Leonardo's nature can never be more than dimly and distantly conceived." Alberti is said to appear in Mantegna's great frescoes in the Camera degli Sposi, as the older man dressed in dark red clothes, who whispers in the ear of Ludovico Gonzaga, the ruler of Mantua. In Alberti's self-portrait, a large plaquette, he is clothed as a Roman. To the left of his profile is a winged eye. On the reverse side is the question, Quid tum? (what then), taken from Virgil's Eclogues: "So what, if Amyntas is dark? (quid tum si fuscus Amyntas?) Violets are black, and hyacinths are black."

• Leon Battista Alberti is a major character in Roberto Rossellini's three-part television film The Age of the Medici (1973), with the third and final part, Leon Battista Alberti: Humanism, centering on him, his works (such as Santa Maria Novella), and his thought. He is played by Italian actor Virginio Gazzolo. • Mentioned in the 1994 film Renaissance Man or Army Intelligence starring Danny DeVito. • Mentioned in the 2004 book The Rule of Four by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason • Mentioned in the board game Alma mater in cards with special powers. • Dr Peter Weller, an actor renowned for his role in the 1987 film RoboCop and appearing in over seventy films and television shows, authored Leon Battista Alberti in Exile: Tracing the Path to the First Modern Book on Painting, in this work published by Cambridge University Press on March 6th, 2025. Weller argues that Leon Battista Alberti’s seminal treatise De pictura was profoundly shaped by his experiences in exile in cities such as Padua, Bologna, and Rome, rather than solely by his later return to Florence. Weller contends that Alberti’s humanist education, mathematical training, and exposure to diverse artistic traditions in these cities provided the intellectual and visual foundation for his groundbreaking integration of humanism and art theory, which elevated painting to the status of a liberal art.