Leon Battista Alberti
Leon Battista Alberti, born in the 15th Century originally from Genoa was educated at Padua and Bologna in classics, mathematics and Church canon law. He was a typical Humanist and his education also made him well-versed in philosophy, science and the arts. In 1421, he attended the University of Bologna where he studied law, which he did not enjoy. Later on, he obtained a degree in canon Law which then led to his mathematical studies. His book, Della Pittura published around the year 1430 were written to influence both artists and patrons through a combination of technical detail and philosophical discussion on Florentine art. This book is divided into 3 parts, the first relates to perspective and mathematics. The second and third parts describe what a painting should consist of to be made ideal. This is often referred to as the historia, which means the recipe to a perfect painting. Alberti’s perception on beauty issues from the mind which gives harmony to art forms, the hand which informs the strength, sensitivity and delicacy of the figure and finally nature which forms the characteristics of the figure.
The use of perspective is to compose a picture as though it was being seen from one position, rather than from different viewpoints. During the pre-Renaissance, perspective wasn’t given much attention in the paintings and therefore reflected a Gothic manner. Alberti’s principle on linear perspective came about in the very early 1400’s. The key to understanding linear perspective lies in realising that the distance of an object from the viewer affects the size of the object. He based his theory on the height of a human figure which he set to 3 braccia, around 1.8m). He starts off with a rectangular picture area, which he imagined as an open window and begins to draw the horizon line; where the sky and land meets, orthogonals; lines that are perpendicular to the picture plane which seems to be converging towards the vanishing point, transversals; lines that are
The use of perspective is to compose a picture as though it was being seen from one position, rather than from different viewpoints. During the pre-Renaissance, perspective wasn’t given much attention in the paintings and therefore reflected a Gothic manner. Alberti’s principle on linear perspective came about in the very early 1400’s. The key to understanding linear perspective lies in realising that the distance of an object from the viewer affects the size of the object. He based his theory on the height of a human figure which he set to 3 braccia, around 1.8m). He starts off with a rectangular picture area, which he imagined as an open window and begins to draw the horizon line; where the sky and land meets, orthogonals; lines that are perpendicular to the picture plane which seems to be converging towards the vanishing point, transversals; lines that are
References: http://www-history.mcs.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Alberti.html http://www.learn.columbia.edu/monographs/raphmon/pdf/art_hum_reading_09.pdf http://gottliebstudios.com/Chiaroscuro http://colorbay.com/perspective.htm http://www.bu.edu/arion/volume-18-barolsky-narrative-art/ Art History by Chris Grace