Leon Battista Alberti, Of Painting.

Reading Questions

 

NOTE: My lectures will focus on the Prologue, pp. 39-40, parts of Book II, the discussion of the istoria or subject matter of painting, pp. 70-81, and the descriptions of the life and education of the painter in Book III, especially pp. 89-90 and 96-98.

 

Prologue (pp. 39-40): Florence and the Rebirth of the Arts in the Renaissance

 

1. According to Alberti, why do the painters of his day deserve more praise than the great artists of antiquity?

 

2. Whom is Albert addressing in this book, and what are its three parts?

 

Book Two (pp. 63-85): Drawing, Composition, and Color

 

  1. What was the social status of artists in ancient Greece and Rome, and why does Alberti care? (pp. 65-66)

 

  1. According to Alberti, who is the audience of Renaissance art? (pp. 66-7)

 

  1. What does Alberti tell us about his own practices as an artist? (p. 67)

 

  1. According to Alberti, what are the three parts of painting? (p. 68) Using his text, define each one.

 

  1. Alberti introduces the key term of his theory art, istoria, in the context of composition (p. 70). Istoria can be translated as “story,” “history,” “narrative,” “plot.” Why is it linked to composition?

 

  1. According to Alberti, “all the members [of a body] ought to conform to a certain appropriateness” (74). What are some criteria for appropriateness? What is dignity?

 

  1. What is the relation of gesture and pose (“movements of the body”) and emotion (‘movements of the soul” in Alberti’s theory of painting? Can a painter go too far in representing emotions? (pp. 77-80)

 

 

Book Three: Education of a Renaissance Painter

 

  1. Why does Alberti say that painters should associate (hang out with) poets and orators? What part of his art will such conversation improve? (pp. 90, 91)

 

  1. How should the painter go about making beautiful images of women?

 

  1. How should the painter respond to criticism? What are the main sources of criticism? (pp. 97-98)

 

Discussion Questions

 

1.  alberti and theatre
Alberti writes, “I strongly approve in an istoria what I see observed [followed] by comic and tragic poets [playwrights]. They tell a story with as few characters as possible.” How is painting like theatrer? How do both painting and theater use rhetoric?  

 

2.  alberti and rhetoric
Explain and evaluate the following thesis:

 

“In Of Painting, Alberti translates key ideas and values from classical rhetoric into a theory of painting.”

 

  1. Find equivalents of logos, pathos, and ethos in Alberti’s analysis of painting.
  2. Choose a passage that demonstrates Alberti’s own use of rhetoric.

 

3. alberti and aristotle
Find places in the text where Alberti seems to support an Aristotelian ethics of moderation. Consider the following problems: movement (p. 88); copiousness and variety (p. 76); the proper use of color (pp. 83-5); speed and diligence (p. 97).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Test your visual skills

 

Which of the following two paintings do you think Alberti would have preferred? Why?

 


GENTILE DA FABRIANO
Adoration of the Magi
1423
Tempera on wood, 300 x 282 cm
Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

View larger: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Gentile_da_Fabriano_Adoration.jpg

 

DOMENICO VENEZIANO
Adoration of the Magi
1440-43
Wood, diameter 84 cm
Staatliche Museen, Berlin

View larger at http://catholique-rouen.cef.fr/spip.php?article566


What do you think Alberti would think of this painting?

 

MICHELANGELO Buonarroti
Last Judgment
1537-41
Fresco, 1370 x 1220 cm
Cappella Sistina, Vatican

View on line with details: http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/m/michelan/3sistina/lastjudg/index.html