LEON ALBERTI BATTISTALeon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) was an Italian architect

Leon Battista Alberti, as a scholar and philosopher who moved in humanist circles in Florence and the papal court in Rome, was involved in all the central concepts of the Renaissance

Humanist philosopher, writer, Renaissance architect and artistic theorist, Leon Battista Alberti is considered by many scholars to be the quintessential Renaissance "universal man" of learning.

Leon Battista Alberti wrote the first book on Italian grammar and a groundbreaking work on cryptography. He is credited with inventing the cypher wheel.

Alberti never received a formal architectural education. His architectural ideas were the product of his own studies and research.

Alberta's two main architectural writings are "De Pictura" (1435), in which he emphatically declares the importance of painting as

a base for architecture and "De Re Aedificatoria" (1450) his theoretical masterpiece

BIOGRAPHY Leon Battista Alberti was born in Genoa on Feb. 14, 1404 Leon Battista attended the famous school of the humanist Gasparino Barzizza in Padua By 1421 Leon Battista was at the University of Bologna; while there he wrote a Latin

comedy. after earning his degree in Bologna he went to Rome. A master of Latin and Italian, Alberti also rewrote in Latin traditional lives of saints and

martyrs. After taking holy orders, he was deemed to hold the priorate of San Martino a Gangalandi

at Lastra a Signa In 1448 he was appointed rector of the parish of San Lorenzo in Mugello. Alberti served also as a papal inspector of monuments (1447-55), and advised Pope

Nicholas V, a former fellow student from Bologna, on the ambitious building projects in the city of Rome.

In the mid-1430s, Alberti moved to Florence with Pope Eugenius IV In 1431 and early 1432 he accompanied Cardinal Albergati on a tour of northern Europe. Soon after this Alberti wrote Descriptio urbis Romae as an index for an archeological map

of Rome and in 3 months composed the first three books of Della famiglia, which is concerned with domestic life and the education of children.

Alberti drew upon principles of geometry and balance to describe an artificial system of “perspective” a term whose etymology reveals its origins in Renaissance efforts to “see through” the picture plane. The intricacies of the outline, the reception of light, and the necessity for a varied, yet balanced, composition are given detailed treatment. Nothing if not thorough, Alberti even prescribes the most pleasing way to depict branches, leaves, hair and clothing when a gentle breeze is blowing.

Alberti’s treatise was an immediate success, and the author quickly made a translation from his original Latin into Italian to reach a still larger audience of academics, patrons and artists. Even a cursory examination of Raphael’s Marriage of the Virgin will reveal many of Alberti’s principles at work.

NEW PRINCIPLES BY ABERTI

WORK OF ARCHITECTURE

In 1450 Alberti was commissioned to transform the Gothic church of S. Francesco. The unfinished Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini (1450) was the first building that Alberti designed and attempted to build based on his architectural principals

The facade of Santa Maria Novella (1458-71) is considered his greatest achievement

The only buildings Alberti designed entirely him, were S. Sebastiano (1460)

Palazzo Rucellai is a fifteenth-century palace in the Piazza de' Rucellai, Florence, Italy, designed by Leon Battista Alberti between 1446 and 1451.

S. Andrea Commentary

IN 1450 ALBERTI WAS COMMISSIONED TO TRANSFORM THE GOTHIC CHURCH OF S.

FRANCESCO The church is usually known as the Tempio Malatestiano. Its dominating form is the classical triumphal arch, Alberti's favorite

structure, but the severe, restrained façade was never quite finished.

Tempio Malatestiano, the façade of Santa Maria Novella in Florence is considered to be a landmark in the formation of

Renaissance architecture

The unfinished Tempio Malatestiano in Rimini (1450) was the first building that Alberti designed and attempted to build based on his architectural principals.

SANTA MARIA NOVELLA (1458-71)

The facade of Santa Maria Novella (1458-71) is considered his greatest achievement since

it allows the pre-existing and newly added parts of the building to merge into a clear statement of his new

principles.

The only buildings Alberti designed entirely him, were S. Sebastiano (1460), still under work during Alberti's lifetime, and S. Andrea (1470), completed in the 18th century.

S. SEBASTIANO (1460)

Palazzo Rucellai is a fifteenth-century palace in the Piazza de' Rucellai, Florence, Italy, designed by Leon Battista Alberti between 1446 and 1451.

The three storeys of the facade have different classical orders, as in the Colosseum, but with the Tuscan order at the base, an Alberti original

in place of Ionic order at the second level, and a very simplified Corinthian order at the top level.

PALAZZO RUCELLAI

The chapel-surrounded tribune or choir, known as the Rotonda, was designed in turn by Michelozzo and Alberti between 1444–76.

SANTISSIMA ANNUNZIATA, FLORENCE

S. ANDREA COMMENTARY

On the facade, [Ablerti] combined two of his favorite ancient images—the pedimented temple front (pilasters, entablature, trabeation, and triangular pediment) and the triadic triumphal arch

(arched central section and lower portals on either side).

The height of the facade equals its width, but the barrel vault of the nave reached well

above the apex of the pediment, which was also surmounted

by a large canopy over the nave window.

ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS (PEDIMENTS & GABLES)

Pediment on the front elevation of Santa Trinita, Florence, Italy

Compound Baroque pediment on Santi Vincenzo e Anastasio, Rome, Italy

Detail of the neoclassical pediment of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, showing the acroteria, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Frontal view of the neoclassical pediment of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, showing the frieze of the pediment and center acroteria above, Philadelphia, PA, USA

Baroque pediment on a church in Sicily, Italy

Detail of a neoclassical pediment made of wood with a window, University of Virginia Colonnade, Charlottesville, VA, USA

Frontal view of the Renaissance pediment with scrolls, Santa Maria Nouvella, Florence, Italy

Neoclassical pediment made of marble and

brick

Baroque split pediment, Sicily, Italy

Baroque split pediment with a volute, France

Detail at the corner of the east pediment, Parthenon, Athens, Greece

Neoclassical double pediment over a door, Paris, France

Side view into the east pediment, Parthenon, Athens, Greece

Gable made of marble, south transept of the Pisa Cathedral, Pisa, Italy

ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS (DECORATIVE ELEMENTS)

Heart in a Neo-Romanesque capital at Stanford University, CA, USA

Decorative shell, Rome, Italy

Hanging swag, Paris, France

Scrolls with shell motif, Sant'Andrea alla Quirinale, Rome, Italy

Scroll on the elevation of Il Gesu, Rome, Italy

Foot on a tomb in Rome, Italy

Elaborate keystone over a door in Paris, France

Plaque on the wall of the Orsanmichele, Florence, Italy

Decorative patterns with mosaic, Orvieto Cathedral, Oriveto, Italy

Rossette in a coffer, Sant'Andrea, Mantova, Italy

Decorative cornucopia in bas-relief, Rome, Italy

Scroll, Fountain Saint Michel, Paris, France

Scroll detail with putti, IL Gesu, Rome, Italy

Scroll, Paris, France

Scroll with swag, Santa Maria in Trivio, Rome, Italy

RENAISSANCE ACCORDING TO LEON ALBERTI BATTISTA

The 15th century witnessed the end of the middle Ages and the beginning of modern times. A civilization which had seen the establishment of Christian Europe died out; another, which is only now being revaluated, came into being with the Renaissance.

But the 15th century was marked by the more than a dispersal of influence; it was based on contradiction. It served as a link between two concepts of the world.

we consider the 15th century in the light of what it ended or in the light of what it began, it was realism which dominated it, a realism which adapted it to the various

trends which kept this era in a state of flux. The sign of its advent had apparent from the 13th century.

Never were the lines of de Vigny more completely apt:Evil and Doubt … there’s the accusationWhich weights o’er all of the creation.With this double malediction the 15th century began.

THE DISINTEGRATION OF THE GOTHIC STYLE the 15th century Gothic art entered a late phase, a phase in which, as often happened, the disintegration of the style was accompanied by a concentration of its extreme forms. A style expressed a unified concept of the world, to which its methods of expression corresponds. However, at the end of the Middle Ages France had ceased to be the focal point for Gothic art, and national tendencies had a free rein.

FROM ABSTRACTION TO MATERIALISM The stern rationality of the scholastic theologians was gradually modified by the warmth of feeling and emotion. St Bernard [12], like St Francis, taught men to approach God not only through the mind but through the emotions; this new attitude gave rise to the need for a physical and material representation. In art both human beings and things were portrayed with increasing realism and materialism. In the 13th century art, lovers seem to be engrossed in reasoning. In 14th century representations, they have become far more intimate. Increasingly the artist places lovers in a setting of nature- of gardens and flowers- which he delights in painting with precision.

DEATH AND THE DEVIL

THE TRANSITION FROM GOTHIC TO RENAISSANCE ART The desire for clarity can bring about excessive simplification; it is tempting to contrast the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, to see in the latter period a reaction- especially in Italy- against the former with its French affinities. In reality there was no break, only a transition and it was the example of French statuary which influenced the Italy sculptors (the Lombard sculptors in the 13th century and the Pisan sculptors in the 14th century, who were the first craftsmen of the new art). The attempt to reproduce forms from the real world was inspired originally by the first Gothic artists. The Italian renaissance brought the quest to a successful completion by drawing directly on the examples of antiquity, that is, by going back to the very sources of sculptural art.

WORK OF ALBERT THROUGH OUR PERCEPTION

Alberti as in renaissance thinking was a universal man.

His work is not just limited to Architecture. He is a painter, writer and a philosopher.

Most of his work is dedicated to humanism.

Alberti’s interest related to art and proportion shown into its designs of architecturs elements.

Proportion, harmony and geometry can be seen very clearly.