Alberti, Leon Battista (1404–1472)

Italian Renaissance architect and theorist. He set out the principles of classical architecture, and covered their modification for Renaissance practice, in De re aedificatoria/On Architecture, which he started in 1452 and worked on until his death (published in 1485; translated as Ten Books on Architecture in 1955).

Alberti's designs for the churches of San Sebastiano, begun In 1460, and San Andrea (1470; both in Mantua) – the only two extant buildings entirely of his design – are bold in their use of classical language but to a certain extent anticipate Mannerism. His treatises on painting (1436) and sculpture (c. 1464) were the first to examine the theory as well as the technique of the subjects. He also wrote works on mathematics, ethics, religion, and grammar.