Leon Battista Alberti

Alberti, Leon Battista (1404–72), Italian Renaissance scholar, architect, painter, and art theorist. His architectural works include the Palazzo Rucellai in Florence and the church of San Francesco in Rimini. Alberti is noted for his literary contributions during the Italian Renaissance, including Della pittura, the first formulation of the aesthetic and scientific attitudes of Renaissance painting; it idealized the imitation of nature and served as a foundation for modern perspective. His architectural influence was presented in his treatise De re aedificatoria, which provided the Renaissance with an original program for architectural design. Alberti also wrote on a variety of subjects involving domestic animals, religion and the priesthood, jurisprudence, politics, government, mathematics, mechanics, literature, and language. He was the prototype of the Renaissance man.