Leon Battista Alberti (1404–72) was an Italian humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher and cryptographer; he epitomised the Renaissance Man. Although he is often characterized exclusively as an architect, as James Beck has observed, "to single out one of Leon Battista’s ‘fields’ over others as somehow functionally independent and self-sufficient is of no help at all to any effort to characterize Alberti’s extensive explorations in the fine arts." Although Alberti is known mostly for being an artist, he was also a mathematician of many sorts and made great advances to this field during the 15th century. Alberti’s life was described in Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects.
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A man can do all things if he but wills them.
—Leon Battista Alberti
Beauty: The adjustment of all parts proportionately so that one cannot add or subtract or change without impairing the harmony of the whole.
—Leon Battista Alberti
Topics: Beauty
When I investigate and when I discover that the forces of the heavens and the planets are within ourselves, then truly I seem to be living among the gods.
—Leon Battista Alberti
Topics: Heaven