Theorist of the Renaissance, embodiment of the "universal man"
An Italian Renaissance architect, theorist, artist, and writer — the very type of the "Renaissance universal man." Carrying on Vitruvius, he wrote the first systematic architectural theory of the Renaissance, On the Art of Building, reinterpreting the proportion, harmony, and beauty of classical architecture with humanist reason. He held that beauty is the fitting proportion among parts, such that any addition or subtraction would spoil it. His church facades (such as Santa Maria Novella in Florence) elegantly fold classical elements into Christian building. Both practitioner and theorist, he re-established architecture, from a craftsman’s handiwork, as a high discipline with principles and dignity.
Alberti gave beauty a far-reaching definition: beauty is a harmonious proportion among parts, reaching a perfection where "add a bit and it is too much, take a bit and it is too little," and any change only makes it worse. This notion equating beauty with a mathematically exact proportion became the core creed of Renaissance architecture — a building wins not by piling on ornament but by the harmony of its whole proportion.
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