Excerpts From Leon Battista Alberti, On Painting (1435):

Book 1: In writing on painting, in these very brief commentaries, we shall first, in order for our
statements to be quite clear, take the things that belong to our topic from the mathematicians, and
having become as well acquainted with it as our talents permit we will present painting from the
first principles of nature. But in all our talk, I strongly urge you to consider me not as a
mathematician, but as a painter writing about these things. The former measure the forms of
things with their understanding alone, leaving out anything material. We, desiring to have things
set up to be seen, will therefore use a more down-to-earth inspiration, as the expression goes, and
will be fully content if our readers somehow or other understand this material, which certainly is
difficult and as far as I know has never been described. So I ask that what we say be interpreted
as being by a painter only...
Up to now we have talked of the power of vision, and of the intersection, but now besides
knowing what it is we must show the painter how to paint it. I will omit everything except what I
do when I paint. I first draw a rectangle of right angles, where I am to paint, which I treat just
like an open window through which I might look at what will be painted there, and then I decide
how large I want the people in my picture, and I divide the length of a man of this size into three,
which is proportionate to a two-foot measurement, since a normal man measures almost six feet.
And I mark these two-foot units on the bottom line of my rectangle, as many of them as it will
take, and this line is for me proportional to the horizontal quantity I originally saw. Then in side
the rectangle, where I like, I mark a point which will be where the middle ray hits, and I call it
the midpoint. This should not be higher above the bottom line than a man I would paint there, so
that the viewer and the things seen will appear to be on a level with each other. Then I draw
straight lines from the midpoint to the divisions already marked in the bottom line. These lines
will show how each transverse quantity might change from the one before almost to infinity...
So I found this the best way, as I said, fixing the midpoint, and then I draw lines to points
on the bottom line. As for the transverse quantities, to show how one follows after the other I do
as follows: I take a little space and in it draw a straight line similar to the bottom line and divide
it similarly, then above it I put a point, straight above one end of it, as high as the midpoint is
above the bottom line, and thence I draw lines to each point in the first line. Then I fix the
distance I want from the eye to the painting, and so draw a perpendicular line cutting every line it
finds, and the places where I find al my parallels to be drawn, that is, the squares of the pavement
in the painting; and the text of whether they are rightly done is if one straight line will make a
diagonal through all the rectangles drawn in the painting.
When I have done this, I draw a horizontal straight line in the painting, parallel to the
lower ones, passing through the midpoint, as a boundary that can be passed only by quantities
higher than the observer=s eye. As a result, men painted standing on the last paving block of the
painting are smaller than the others, which nature shows us is just...

Book 3: But since this learning may perhaps seem tiring to the young, I think I should show
why painting is worth taking up all our effort and study. Painting has a divine power, not just
because, as is said of friendship, it makes absent ones present, but it makes the dead seem to live.
after centuries...
Painting is divided into three parts, a division we have taken from nature. Since painting
tries to represent seen things, let us observe in what way objects are seen. In the first place when
we see an object we say it is a thing that occupies a place. The painter describing this space will
call this marking of the edge with a line circumscription or outline. Then, looking it over, we
observe that many surfaces in the seen object connect, and here the artist, setting them down in
their proper places, will say that he is making the composition. Lastly, we determine more
clearly the colors and the qualities of the surfaces. Since every difference in representing these
arises from light, we may call it precisely the reception of light or illumination. Thus painting is
composed of circumscription, composition, and the reception of light...
Having finished circumscription, that is the way to draw, it remains to speak of
compositions. It is necessary to repeat what composition is. Composition is that method in
painting by which the parts of the things seen are put together in the picture. A painter=s biggest
work - a colossus! But let him do narrative pictures, for narrative pictures evoke greater praise
for talent than any colossus whatever. The narrative is reducible into bodies, bodies into limbs,
limbs into surfaces. Thus the prime divisions of painting are surfaces. There arises from the
compositions of the surface that grace of bodies which is called beauty...
The first thing that pleases us in a narrative picture is abundance and variety of objects.
As in food and music, novelty and number please insofar as they differ from old and familiar
things...I would call that historical picture extremely rich in which there is at the proper places a
miscellany of old men, young men, boys, women, girls, children, chickens, cattle birds, horses
sheep, buildings, views, and all such things...
I dislike sparseness of figures in a narrative picture, but I do not praise profusion which is
without dignity...
The narrative will move the mind when the men painted therein exhibit much of their
own emotion. It happens according to nature, than which nothing is more able to produce its like,
that we weep with the weeping, laugh with the laughing, and sorrow with the sorrowing. But
these emotions are to be recognized from motions. So it is best for the painter to know very well
all the bodily motions, which are certainly to be learned from nature...
There is some to be found who use much gold in their narratives, which they consider
lends majesty: I do not praise it...for in colors imitating the shine of gold there is more
admiration and praise for the artist...
It would please me that the painter, to grasp all these things, should be a good man and
versed in literature...I like a painter to be as learned as he can be in all the liberal arts, but
primarily I desire him to know geometry...
It will be helpful to take from all beautiful bodies each part that is praised and in learning
great beauty one must always strain with work and study. Though this may be difficult, because
in no one body are all the parts of beauty, but rare and scattered among many bodies, yet one
must give al labor to seeking to learn it...


Conclusion: Perhaps after me there will be someone to amend the errors I have
written...whoever follows me, if perhaps he is someone more advanced in learning and talent
than I, will, I expect, make painting self-contained and perfect.