Leon Battista Alberti in exile : tracing the path to the first modern book on painting / Peter Weller.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Weller, Peter, 1947- author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Alberti, Leon Battista, 1404-1472--Travel.

Alberti, Leon Battista.

Alberti, Leon Battista, 1404-1472. De pictura.

Architects--Italy--15th century--Biography.

Architects.

Architecture, Renaissance--Italy.

Architecture, Renaissance.

Italy--Art and achitecture--15th century.

Italy.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xxvi, 367 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2025.

Summary:

The prodigy poet, playwright, architect, painter, and humanist savant Leon Battista Alberti emerged in 1435 with De pictura ['On Painting'], the modern era's earliest discourse on Western art, written in classical Latin by an ostensible practitioner of the craft. Alberti has captivated the art world from his own epoch to ours, and his dubious Florentine identity enables this allure. In this volume, Peter Weller challenges the popular notion that De pictura's compendium on lines, points, mathematics, composition, narrative, and portraiture is primarily the result of Alberti's return to Florence and his short exposure to its visual art. Weller argues that Rome, Padua, Bologna, and northern Europe - environs where Alberti studied, worked, and lived during exile - empowered his paramount intellectual-artistic gift. Scrutiny of Alberti's evolution before Florence illuminates how this original Renaissance man merged the two most conspicuous cultural developments of early modern Italy - visual art and humanism - to create De pictura, our first modern book on painting.

Contents:

Cover

Half-title

Title page

Imprints page

Dedication

Table of Contents

Preface

Acknowledgments

Preliminaries: ''The Florence Problem''

Introduction

Chapter One Padua: Historical Realm and Intellectual Culture

Heritage: Commune to Venice

Humanists: Rolandino to Petrarch

Antiquarians: Albertano, Mansionario, Da Moglio, and Pastrengo

Conclusion

Chapter Two Alberti in Padua I: Intellectual Evolution (c. 1412-1420)

Overview

Texts

Teachers

Structure of De pictura

Antiquity

Science and Mathematics

Chapter Three Alberti in Padua II: Visual Evolution (c. 1412-1420)

Antique Sources

Giotto, Cennini, and Imitatio

Why Giotto Only, and Why Giotto Only in Rome?

Altichiero

Chapter Four Alberti in Bologna (c. 1421-1428?)

Intellectual Evolution: Bologna's University

Alberti's Early Writings

Visual Education

Alberti and Northern Europe

Chapter Five Alberti in Rome (c. Late 1420s-1434)

Intellectual Evolution: Alberti and the Church

Topography

Historia in Context

Visual Evolution: Antique

Post-Antique

Visual Sources: Renaissance

Chapter Six Finalities and Florence

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 07 Feb 2025).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781009548656

1009548654

9781009548670

1009548670

9781009548632

1009548638