Biography

Leon Battista Alberti is considered by many scholars to be the quintessential Renaissance man. Alberti was born in Genoa, Italy on February 14, 1404 into a wealthy Florentine family, where he and his brother were illegitimate children. However, both were well-loved and cared for by their father, Lorenzo Alberti. Battista's formal education was completed at the University of Bologna, where he received a doctorate in canon law in 1428. In 1435 he wrote the book On Painting, which set out the rules for drawing a three-dimensional picture on a two-dimensional surface for the first time. These principles of linear perspective had been rediscovered and demonstrated by Filippo Brunelleschi. Leon Battista Alberti's work expounded on these ideas and set them forth with clarity. On Painting would guide Renaissance artists into producing more realistic, spatially correct, pieces of art. Alberti shined not only in his authorship, but also his architecture. When Nicholas V became pope in 1447, Alberti became his architectural advisor. Alberti and Nicholas collaborated on a series of building projects in Rome, including the reconstruction of St. Peter's and the Vatican Palace. In 1452 Alberti at long last completed his study of Vitruvius and finished his own completely new architectural text, Ten Books on Architecture. This monumental work would serve as the guide for virtually all succeeding Renaissance architecture. He would proceed to design numerous facades for churches also. He also wrote the first book on Italian grammar and a treatise on cryptography. Alberti died in Rome, on April 20, 1472 at age 68.