1 The Marvel of Brunelleschi s Dome Leon Battista Alberti to Filippo di Ser Brunellesco 1436 Battista Alberti born in Genoa in 1404 was the illegitimate son of Lorenzo Alberti a member of the distinguished family banished from Florence at the end of the fourteenth century Battista added Leon to his name later in life After studying in Venice and with the humanist Gasparino Barzizza in Padua he received his degree in canon law at the University of Bologna in 1428 In 1434 Alberti was finally granted the opportunity to return to Florence Understandably he tried to earn the respect of the local intellectuals and to be recognized as a genuine Florentine Alberti s acquaintance with Donatello and Brunelleschi moreover inspired him to write De picture On painting In fact Alberti dedicated his Italian version to Brunelleschi The artistic principles presented in this work the first of its kind since antiquity exerted an immediate and significant influence on artists of the Italian Renaissance I once used both to marvel and to regret that so many of the excellent and divine arts and sciences which as the artists works themselves and the books of historians attest were abundantly cultivated among those most noble men of antiquity have now almost completely disappeared Painters sculptors architects musicians geometers rhetoricians augurs and other such noble and excellent intellects are today rare and scarcely deserving of praise I was thus led to believe what many people were saying namely that Nature the teacher of all things have grown old and tired had stopped producing those scores of giants and wonderful intellects that she had brought forth in her youthful and more glorious days But after returning to our homeland this most illustrious of cities from the exile in which we Albertis have passed so many years I recognized in many but especially in you Filippo and in our dear friends Donatello the sculptor Nencio Luca and Masaccio a genius equal to any of those Ancients who gained fame in these arts I thus came to realize that it was not only thanks to the gifts we have received from Nature but also to our ability and diligence that we have the capacity to achieve great distinction in any field Because the Ancients had an abundance of models to imitate and from which to learn it was easier for them to master those supreme arts which are so challenging for us today Consequently we deserve greater acclaim in view of our lack of tutors and models for we manage to discover arts and sciences hitherto unheard of and unseen Who could be so dense or so envious as not to praise the architect Filippo after seeing such a grand structure towering into the skies large enough to cover all the Tuscan people with its shadow built without the support of beams or scaffolding I believe that such an accomplishment so great that the people of our times imagined it impossible was equally unknown and unheard of in antiquity But I shall sing both your praises Filippo and the virtues of our Donatello elsewhere as well as those of all the others whose qualities I find most admirable 2 For the time being please continue discovering as you do day after day things that will bring eternal fame and repute to your outstanding intellect and if you happen to have a free moment I would be grateful if you would look over this little work of mine on painting whose translation into the Tuscan tongue I dedicate to you It consists as you will see of three books The first is devoted to mathematics and reveals how this delightful and most noble art emerges from Nature s own roots The second book puts the art into the hands of the artist distinguishing and explaining art in all its parts The third teaches the artist how he can and should master the knowledge of the art of painting Please read my work carefully and adjust it as you see fit There is no writer who was ever so learned as not to need the help of erudite friends About all I wish for your sage corrections where necessary in order not to fall prey readily to the criticism of slanderers Source Leon Battista Alberti Della pittura ed Luigi Malle Florence Sansoni 1950 53 54 as quoted in Stefano Baldasari Arielle Saiber eds Images of quattrocento Florence selected writings in literature history and art New Haven Yale University Press 2000
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