Leon Battista Alberti

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Marble facade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, by Leon Battista Alberti, 1456–70. In the foreground is one of two marble obelisks by the Flemish sculptor best known as Giambologna (Jean de Boulogne).

Palazzo Rucellai, designed by Leon Battista Alberti, c. 1445–70.

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Arts & Culture

Leon Battista Alberti

Italian architect and author

Written by Joan Kelly-Gadol

Fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica

Last Updated: Feb 12, 2024 • Article History

Leon Battista Alberti

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Category: Arts & Culture

Born:: Feb. 14, 1404, Genoa

Died:: April 25, 1472, Rome (aged 68)

Notable Works:: Palazzo Rucellai; Santa Maria Novella

Movement / Style:: Early Renaissance; Renaissance

Subjects Of Study:: perspective; cartography; architecture; cryptography

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Leon Battista Alberti (born Feb. 14, 1404, Genoa—died April 25, 1472, Rome) was an Italian humanist, architect, and principal initiator of Renaissance art theory. In his personality, works, and breadth of learning, he is considered the prototype of the Renaissance “universal man.” The society and class into which Alberti was born endowed him with the intellectual and moral tendencies he was to articulate and develop over a lifetime. He belonged to one of the wealthy merchant-banker families of Florence. At the time of his birth, the Alberti were in exile, expelled from Florence by the oligarchical government then dominated by ...(100 of 2354 words)

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