De pictura

Alberti was a member of Florentine family exiled in the 14th century, who was able to return in Florence only from 1434, in the following of the Papal court during the Council of Florence. Here he knew contemporary art innovators such as Filippo Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio, with whom he shared an interest for Renaissance humanism and classical art.

Alberti was the first post-classical writer to produce a work of art theory, as opposed to works about the function of religious art or art techniques, and reflected the developing Italian Renaissance art of his day. As an artist, architect, poet and philosopher, he revolutionized the history of art with his theories of perspective in On Painting (1435). Inspired by the order and beauty inherent in nature, his groundbreaking work sets out the principles of distance, dimension and proportion; instructs the painter on how to use the rules of composition, representation, light and colour to create work that is graceful and pleasing to the eye; and stipulates the moral and artistic pre-requisites of the successful painter.

On Painting had an immediate and profound influence on Italian Renaissance artists including Ghiberti, Fra Angelico and Veneziano and on later figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, and remains a compelling theory of art.

The accurate perspective in Leonardo da Vinci's paintings such as his Annunciation (1475–1480) epitomizes the construction described in Alberti's De pictura.

De pictura influenced the work of artists including Donatello, Ghiberti, Botticelli, and Ghirlandaio.[6] His treatment of perspective was the most influential of his recommendations, being powerfully implemented by Leonardo da Vinci, and through him to the whole Italian Renaissance.[7]

Alberti made at least 29 uses of Pliny the Elder's Natural History, deriving his key themes of simplicity and seriousness directly from Pliny. For example, Alberti advised artists to use colour with restraint, and to paint in the effect of gold rather than using actual gold in their paintings. Gold did indeed vanish from Italian paintings of the second part of the 15th century. Artists however found their own ways to paint with restraint, rather than following Alberti's actual instructions directly. Similarly, he encouraged artists to add black when modelling shapes, rather than only adding white as Cennino Cennini had advised in his c. 1390 Il Libro dell'Arte. This advice had the effect of making Italian renaissance paintings more sombre. Alberti was here perhaps following Pliny's description of the dark varnish used by Apelles.[7][8]