Leon Battista Alberti - Florence, Italy
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neoc1
N 43° 46.116 E 011° 15.336
32T E 681544 N 4848644
A statue of author, artist, poet, architect, and priest Leon Battista Alberti is one of 28 statues of located along the colonnade of the Uffizi Gallery in Florence, Italy.
Waymark Code: WM11Y8F
Location: Toscana, Italy
Date Posted: 01/10/2020
Views: 4
A life size statue of polymath Leon Battista Alberti was created by by Giovanni Lusini and placed in a niche in the colonnade of the Uffizi Gallery. The statues were added to the empty niches, originally created by Giorgio Vasari. The statues were funded by a public subscription program that began in 1834.
Leon Battista Alberti is depicted standing. He is wearing clerical robes with hanging sleeves, a clerical collar, and a round hat. He is holding an inscribing compass in his right hand and a sheet of paper or parchment in his left hand.
The plinth is inscribed: LEON BATT. ALBERTI
Leon Battista Alberti is described an a complete renaissance man. He excelled in many fields including writing, painting, architecture, poetry, and as a linguist, philosopher and cryptographer. He was born in Genoa, Italy on February 14, 1404 into an exiled wealthy Florentine family. He studied law at Bologna, became a priest and served in the court of the pope.
He studied and wrote extensively in the field of Alberti mathematics which he considered the the common denominator for the understanding of of both art and science. In his book on painting Della Pittura he put forward the mathematical basis for optics and perspective in art. In his treatise on sculpture De Statua, Alberti stressed that "all steps of learning should be sought from nature and that the aim of an artist is to imitate nature. He studied the architecture of ancient Rome. In his book De Re Aedificatoria, the Art of Building, was the first book on architecture written during the Renaissance. Alberti also wrote many love poems, fables, Latin comedy and dialogues.
Among is writings are: Autobiografia e Altre Opere Latine, (Autobiogrphy and Other Latin Works), Philodoxus (Lover of Glory, 1424), De Commodis Litterarum Atque Incommodis (On the Advantages and Disadvantages of Literary Studies, 1429), Intercoenales (Table Talk, c. 1429), Della Famiglia (On the Family, 1432) Vita S. Potiti (Life of St. Potitus, 1433), De Iure (On Law, 1437), Theogenius (The Origin of the Gods, c. 1440), Profugorium ab Aerumna (Refuge from Mental Anguish,), Momus, a dark comedy, (1450), and De Iciarchia (On the Prince, 1468).