Leon Battista Alberti

Lore & Background

Leon Battista Alberti was born in 1404 in Genoa to Bianca Fieschi and Lorenzo di Benedetto Alberti, a wealthy Florentine exiled from his city. He was sent to boarding school in Padua, then studied law at Bologna. He lived in Florence and in 1431 travelled to Rome, where he took holy orders and entered the papal court. Studying ancient ruins excited his interest in architecture. He was thought to be a tall, strong athlete skilled in horseback riding. By age twenty he had written a play passed off as Classical literature. In 1435 he began Della pittura, analyzing painting, perspective, composition, and colour. In 1438 he focused more on architecture, encouraged by the Marchese Leonello d'Este of Ferrara, for whom he designed a triumphal arch that was constructed posthumously. In 1447 he became architectural advisor to Pope Nicholas V.

Reader's Guide

Alberti's significance lies in his role as a foundational figure of Renaissance architecture and cryptography. His treatise De re aedificatoria (1452), based on Vitruvius and ancient Roman buildings, was the first architectural treatise of the Renaissance and became a major reference for architects, though not published until 1485. He designed the façade of the Rucellai Palace in Florence (1446), the Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini (1450), and the upper parts of Santa Maria Novella's façade, solving a visual problem with scrolls that set a precedent for four centuries. His two churches in Mantua—San Sebastiano (1460) and Sant'Andrea (1472)—are among his most famous works, with Sant'Andrea considered his most significant. He also wrote on sculpture (De statua, 1464), cryptography (De componendis cifris), and the first Italian grammar. He collaborated with Paolo Toscanelli in astronomy and wrote a Latin work on geography. His thoughts on beauty as harmony of parts influenced Renaissance aesthetics.

Did You Know?

• Alberti is considered the founder of Western cryptography; Johannes Trithemius is a later figure in the field.
• His only known sculpture is a bronze self-portrait medallion, widely accepted as his own work.
• He wrote a panegyric for his pet dog, a mongrel, titled Canis.
• His first major written work, Della pittura, was inspired by the burgeoning pictorial art in Florence in the early fifteenth century.

Notable Quotes (Wikiquote)

"Anche le persone ben sensate, quando voglion penetrare i secreti Divini, si fanno simili a i bambini." — Leon Battista Alberti "Even sensible people, when they attempt to penetrate the secrets of the Divinity, become as little children." — Leon Battista Alberti "Favole, "Il Fanciullo, i Raggi del Sole, e l'Ombra" — Leon Battista Alberti "È necessario di conoscere il forte ed il debole del suo nemico, prima di venir con esso a cimento." — Leon Battista Alberti