Leon Battista Alberti Research Paper

Leon Battista Alberti was born in 1404 and passed away in 1472. He was born into a wealthy family. His fathers family was one of the most wealthiest and highest ranking families in Florentine. His fathers name was Lorenzo, there isn’t anything on his mother so it is said that he was an illegitimate child. He studied literature, law and Greek where ever he went with his father.
However, from an early age he would teach himself diverse scientific and artistic interests, such as music, sculpture, painting, physics, architecture, and mathematics. He worked as an architect mostly in Florence, Rimini, and Mantua. Not only was he an accomplished architect, he was also a humanist( trained to be so), musician, and art theorist. When he was in Florence somewhere between 1434 and 1436, his interest for visual art really started to show.
The first essay in

sculptures is said to be on De Statua (undated), in the essay he told the sculptor to be guided by both observation and by academic study. Also the essay had the first known definition of sculpture as an additive process, as in clay modeling or a subtractive one such as carving. In the 1440’s he went into architecture. De Re Aedificatoria was done in 1452, he put together the theory of using the five classical orders of Greek architecture. Leon was called on t complete the facade of the church of S. Maria Novella in Florence. Incorporating the exact Gothic arcading on the lower story, he added a great arched central doorway, and unified it with side pilasters and a high arch zone. The upper level he kept the old circular window and surrounded it with a visually dominating square element. He had formed a structured classical facade, the genius of his design appears as convincing as aesthetic and in no was a compromise.
Donatello was born in Florence Italy in 1386, and died in Florence in 1466. He was the greatest sculptor in the early Renaissance because of the powerful expressions of his art. He quickly learned the Gothic Style at a young age. even before he was twenty years old he was receiving commissions on his work. The marble Saint George that was made for the guildhall of Orsanmichele was one the first masterpieces of his early career. As well as the gilt bronze Saint Louis of Toulouse at the church of Santa Croce, Florence. Also included in his first works is the Feast of Herod and statuettes of angels on the baptismal front in the Baptistery of Siena. Donatello worked in northern Italy in the city of Padua from 1443 to 1453. For the church of Santo, he designed a monumental sculpted high altarpiece.
Now it has ben dismantled but the effect of the sacra conversazione of the saints surrounding the Virgin and Child along with the narrative he had set below can be easily imagined.

He also created a great bronze equestrian statue of the military commander Gattamelata, one of the revivals of an ancient Rome type, and the first such sculpture to come down from the Renaissance. Donatello learned metallurgy and the fabrication of metals and other substances. He apprenticed with Florence sculptor and metalsmith Lorenzo Ghiberti in 1403, then a few years later when Ghiberti created the bronze doors for the Baptistery of the Florence Cathedral, Donatello assisted in creating the cathedral doors. Some say that Donatello and Brunelleschi actually stuck up a friendship and traveled Rome to study classical art. The experience gave Donatello a deep understanding of classic forms and ornamentation, this important knowledge would eventually change the face of the fifteenth century Italian art. the association between Donatello and Brunelleschi is what most likely influenced him into the Gothic style that was seen in his early

work.