ALBERTI, LEON BATTISTA

ALBERTI, Leon Battista: translation

(1404-1472)

Leon Battista Alberti, the leading theorist inRenaissanceItaly, was born into a noble Florentine family expelled to Venice. It was in Padua that Alberti first studied classical humanism, and in Bologna that he received a law degree in 1428. Able to return to Florence the following year, he began his career as an author, writing books on upper-middle-class family life, painting, sculpture, and architecture. His architectural treatise, finished in 1452 and titledDe re aedificatura, is dedicated to his patron in Rome, Pope Nicholas V. This treatise is the first since antiquity and was modeled on the Roman treatise byVitruvius.Like Vitruvius, Alberti defined ideal architecture as that which demonstrates strength, utility, and beauty. He also updated Vitruvius's classical orders by canonizing the Composite order ofcolumns, which Vitruvius considered merely a late variant of the Corinthian. Alberti's treatise is less of a practical manual, however, and more of a theoretical discussion of the aesthetics of classical architecture, considered the ideal style in the Renaissance.

Alberti put his ideals into practice with his Tempio Malatestiano, built in the 1450s as a funerary church for the ruler of Rimini, Sigismondo Malatesta. Despite the fact that it lacks its originally planneddomeover the crossing of the nave, thisstonebuilding recalls a classical temple in its façade, which is made to recall the design of a Roman triumphalarch, and in its basilica interior, which has piers lightly carved with Roman motifs. His later church of Sant'Andrea in Mantua, from 1472, is Alberti's most fully formed classical building. Here, a colossal arch rises up over the central door, flanked by side wings with separate entrances. Thus, the façade is divided into three parts separated by smooth colossal Corinthian pilasters that rise up to the entablature, creating an elevated porch entrance into the church. The façade is further divided into three parts vertically, by the placement of two arches over each side entrance to create three stories. Finally, a frieze separates the lower levels from the triangular pediment that caps the sloping, unfinished roofline. Entering the building under the coffered portico, the visitor immediately recognizes that the interior of the church matches the exterior in height, proportion, and design. The vast coffered barrel vault provides an expansive Latin-cross plan, with a nave flanked by side aisles. It was the Latin-cross church plan that Alberti used here, which was the most practical in organization and size. Thus, with these churches one can see how Alberti sought to infuse a rational approach to his ideal architecture by providing not only overt classical references but also a visual harmony and order that suited Renaissance aesthetics.