To seek the divine . . .

Today is the birthday of Leon Battista Alberti (February 18, 1404 – April 20, 1472), a polymath, the true Renaissance man. He was an author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer.

His well known literary contribution to art is his treatise, De pictura (On Painting, 1435), which contained the first scientific study of perspective.

"A man can do all things if he but wills them." - Leon Battista Alberti

"Let no one doubt, that the man who does not perfectly understand what he is attempting to do when painting, will never be a good painter. It is useless to draw the bow, unless you have a target to aim to arrow at." - Leon Battista Alberti from On Painting

"When I investigate and when I discover that the forces of the heavens and the planets are within ourselves, then truly I seem to be living among the gods." - Leon Battista Alberti

"all steps of learning should be sought from nature." - Leon Battista Alberti

"Painting is possessed of divine power, for not only does it make the absent present, but also makes the dead almost alive." - Leon Battista Alberti

So why study art . . . perhaps to seek the divine.

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