Leon Battista Alberti "On Painting"

Renaissance artists were inspired by the art of classical antiquity which stressed realism and perspective. The Renaissance artist gave immeasurable importance to the viewer. The resulting art gave expression to classical humanism.

I. Introduction describing Della pittura (On Painting) by Leon Battista Alberti (1404 - 1472)

A. Alberti - the first modern art theoretician

B. formulated the mathematical theory of artistic perspective

C. purpose - to enable artists o depict objects as if they were seen through a glass window

D. this realist approach in Renaissance art and artistic theory helped to pave the way for the the development of the modern scientific approach to nature

II. On Painting - Alberti begs us to consider him an artist first and a mathematician second

III. Alberti uses a triangle or pyramid to show how light rays coming from the object converge on the viewer’s eyes

A. Vision makes a triangle

A. Rule: as the angle within the eye becomes more acute, so the quantity appears smaller

1. The more rays used in seeing, the larger the object; the fewer the rays, the smaller

B. 3D not 2D: as depth is added to a 2D painting, more 2D planes are added behind the original to produce the visual effect of depth and 3 dimensions

C. Painters circumscribe the plane with their lines

1. artists must seek to present the forms of things as if its plane were of transparent glass

2. thus the visual triangle can pass through it

IV. Alberti describes his use of the human figure as a basis for a precise ratio between the objects in a painting

A. When Alberti paints he starts with a quadrangle which he considers a window through which he sees what he wishes to paint

B. he divides men into 3 parts called braccia which are roughly equivalent to 2 feet

C. he makes a point where the central ray strikes called the centric point

D. a painted thing can never appear truthful where there is not a definite distance for seeing it