Summary of Leon Battista Alberti's ON PAINTING

The treatise written by the Italian art theorist and architect Leon Battista Alberti explains and analyzes the techniques used in painting in the late 14^th and early 15^th century. Using the theory of perspective applied by Brunelleschi in designing the Dome of Florence as a starting point, the author presents the relation between this art that stimulates imagination and mathematics that addresses mainly to ration.

The importance of this work resides in the fact that, for the first time, it is explained how a tridimensional object can be represented on a bidimensional one, so that the viewer can perceive it as "the real thing", and not just as a simple image. To make himself understood, Alberti begins by making a concise presentation of some of the basic notions in painting and geometry, such as the point and the line.

One of the most important sections in the book is dedicated to the art of painting figures, presenting how the limbs or the head must be drawn in order for the person being painted not to appear encapsulated, but be represented as lively as possible. According to the author, one of the most important purposes painters must serve is to honor death, so that they can continue to live in the memory of the viewer.

Besides illustrating his theories with examples from classical Greek and Roman mythology, Alberti includes a series of 3D sketches in the book, explaining every detail of the techniques that have to be used in order to draw them. This makes his efforts even more laudable, because a painting treatise containing such representations is a premiere for the theory of art in the Middle Ages.

Last, but not least, the author provides a series of tips and tricks on how colors should be used for the painting to be appealing for the eye and address ration at the same time. The greatest thing about the principles he expresses is that some of them are applied even today, the moderate use of black and white as primary colors being one of them.