Lecture 3 Alberti Review Slides

Preface to manuscript of De re aedificatoria ( on the art of building)

Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472)

Mid 1400s written but published late 1400s

Architect and theorist, humanist

De re aedificatoria (On the Art of Building), c. 1450

• First architectural treatise since antiquity

• Manuscript written c. 1450, published 1485

• Written in Latin, 10 books/sections like Vitruvius’s Ten Books on

Architecture (De architectura libri decem)

• Unillustrated

Aim of treatise: To raise the status of architecture and define the

architect as a professional by showing to prospective patrons that:

• Architecture is useful and necessary and a source of pleasure and

beauty.

• Architecture requires reason and intellect and education in a

variety of disciplines (e.g. geometry, mathematics, astronomy,

logic) – theoretical grounding.

• Architects are trained experts with an important role in society.

Alberti’s own practice demonstrates the beginning of a divide

between architect and craftsman. He was not present continuously at

many of his building sites but communicated his intentions from afar

to his deputies on site, through drawings and written instructions.

Palazzo Rucellai

Florence, Italy

Alberti

Mid 1400s

patron was Florentine merchant Giovanni Rucellai

Alberti’s use of the classical orders

• Pilaster order is as an organizing grid that unifies multiple

stories.

• Sequence of orders across floors, based on monuments in

Rome (e.g. Theater of Marcellus, Septizodium)

• Classical orders/trabeation applied to a palace façade to

ennoble the building.

San Francesco (Tempio Malatestiano)

Rimini, Italy

Alberti

mid 1400s

New classicizing façade and envelope for a pre-existing Gothic

church (see solid poche on plan)

• Tomb monument for Lord Sigismondo Malatesta, his wife, and

humanist courtiers

• Lower right: Arches carried on piers, not columns - Alberti

thought this was more structurally sound (and more purely

antique) compared to Brunelleschi’s arcades on columns.

Resembles Roman aqueduct.

Creative adaptation of Roman building type:

• Specific antique precedent: Arch of Augustus, Rimini (at right)

• Repeats arch motif across the church façade

New context and meanings for a pagan triumphal symbol:

- Malatesta as famed military general

- Triumph of Christian soul over death

- Humanist idea of fame outlasting human life

Constructed by Matteo de’ Pasti with instructions from Alberti

San Francesco (Tempio Malatestiano)

Rimini, Italy

Alberti

mid 1400s

New classicizing façade and envelope for a pre-existing Gothic

church (see solid poche on plan)

• Tomb monument for Lord Sigismondo Malatesta, his wife, and

humanist courtiers

• Lower right: Arches carried on piers, not columns - Alberti

thought this was more structurally sound (and more purely

antique) compared to Brunelleschi’s arcades on columns.

Resembles Roman aqueduct.

Creative adaptation of Roman building type:

• Specific antique precedent: Arch of Augustus, Rimini (at right)

• Repeats arch motif across the church façade

New context and meanings for a pagan triumphal symbol:

- Malatesta as famed military general

- Triumph of Christian soul over death

- Humanist idea of fame outlasting human life

Constructed by Matteo de’ Pasti with instructions from Alberti

Church of Sant’ Andrea

Mantua, Italy

Alberti

late 1400s

important pilgrimage site with relic of Christ’s blood

- Major order of pilasters unifies multiple parts of facade, minor

(smaller) order defines entrance

- **Creative fusion of triumphal arch and temple front adapted to a

church facade

Longitudinal plan

• New, grand spatial concept: barrel vaulted nave with barrel-vaulted side

chapels, no side aisles

(Note: fictive coffering in the vault is a later addition)

Dome and crossing built much later, Alberti’s

original intention is still debated – may have

been planned as a domed Greek cross.

reviving the grandeur and monumentality of ancient Roman architecture

Sant’ Andrea: side chapels

Repetition of triumphal arch motif from facade (paired pilasters flanking

arch) – links exterior and interior.

Perpendicular side chapels based on Basilica of Maxentius

Specific ancient precedent – going back to the source:

Basilica of Maxentius/Constantine, Rome, 4th c. Originally had

vaulted central space flanked by the smaller vaulted spaces

perpendicular to nave shown above.

Summary of Key Ideas

Alberti comes to architecture as a humanist scholar/theorist, not a craftsman/proto-engineer

like Brunelleschi.

• He thinks of classical architecture as a language with grammatical rules about the placement,

function, and meaning of architectural elements like the orders.

• He thinks about building typologies and how ancient types can be revived but with new

meanings and functions (esp. in a Christian context).

• He revives the grandeur and monumental spaces of imperial Roman architecture.

Which buildings demonstrate each of these points

Church of Sant’ Andrea

Mantua, Italy

Alberti

late 1400s

important pilgrimage site with relic of Christ’s blood

- Major order of pilasters unifies multiple parts of facade, minor

(smaller) order defines entrance

- **Creative fusion of triumphal arch and temple front adapted to a

church facade

Longitudinal plan

• New, grand spatial concept: barrel vaulted nave with barrel-vaulted side

chapels, no side aisles

(Note: fictive coffering in the vault is a later addition)

Dome and crossing built much later, Alberti’s

original intention is still debated – may have

been planned as a domed Greek cross.

reviving the grandeur and monumentality of ancient Roman architecture

Sant’ Andrea: side chapels

Repetition of triumphal arch motif from facade (paired pilasters flanking

arch) – links exterior and interior.

Perpendicular side chapels based on Basilica of Maxentius

Specific ancient precedent – going back to the source:

Basilica of Maxentius/Constantine, Rome, 4th c. Originally had

vaulted central space flanked by the smaller vaulted spaces

perpendicular to nave shown above.

Church of Sant’ Andrea

Mantua, Italy

Alberti

late 1400s

important pilgrimage site with relic of Christ’s blood

- Major order of pilasters unifies multiple parts of facade, minor

(smaller) order defines entrance

- **Creative fusion of triumphal arch and temple front adapted to a

church facade

Longitudinal plan

• New, grand spatial concept: barrel vaulted nave with barrel-vaulted side

chapels, no side aisles

(Note: fictive coffering in the vault is a later addition)

Dome and crossing built much later, Alberti’s

original intention is still debated – may have

been planned as a domed Greek cross.

reviving the grandeur and monumentality of ancient Roman architecture

Sant’ Andrea: side chapels

Repetition of triumphal arch motif from facade (paired pilasters flanking

arch) – links exterior and interior.

Perpendicular side chapels based on Basilica of Maxentius

Specific ancient precedent – going back to the source:

Basilica of Maxentius/Constantine, Rome, 4th c. Originally had

vaulted central space flanked by the smaller vaulted spaces

perpendicular to nave shown above.