UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Alberti Before Florence: Early Sources Informing Leon Battista Alberti’s De Pictura A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Art History by Peter Francis Weller 2014 © Copyright by Peter Francis Weller 2014 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Alberti Before Florence: Early Sources Informing Leon Battista Alberti’s De Pictura By Peter Francis Weller Doctor of Philosophy in Art History University of California, Los Angeles, 2014 Professor Charlene Villaseñor Black, Chair De pictura by Leon Battista Alberti (1404?-1472) is the earliest surviving treatise on visual art written in humanist Latin by an ostensible practitioner of painting. The book represents a definitive moment of cohesion between the two most conspicuous cultural developments of the early Renaissance, namely, humanism and the visual arts. This dissertation reconstructs the intellectual and visual environments in which Alberti moved before he entered Florence in the curia of Pope Eugenius IV in 1434, one year before the recorded date of completion of De pictura. For the two decades prior to his arrival in Florence, from 1414 to 1434, Alberti resided in Padua, Bologna, and Rome. Examination of specific textual and visual material in those cities – sources germane to Alberti’s humanist and visual development, and thus to the ideas put forth in De pictura – has been insubstantial. This dissertation will therefore present an investigation into the sources available to Alberti in Padua, Bologna and Rome, and will argue that this material helped to shape the prescriptions in Alberti’s canonical Renaissance tract. By more fully accounting for his intellectual and artistic progression before his arrival in Florence, this forensic reconstruction aims to fill a gap in our knowledge of Alberti’s formative years and thereby underline impact of his early career upon his development as an art theorist. ii This dissertation of Peter Francis Weller is approved. Peter Stacey Robert Williams Charlene Villaseñor Black, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2014 iii Dedicated to my extraordinary wife, Sheri and beautiful son, Teddy, both of whom never allowed reading Latin in bed; To my own personal ‘Pietro Bembo,’ Mark Hime of Biblioctopus; and to Stan and Brian Shuster of the Grand Havana Room who loaned me the “office” for seven years to complete the bulk of this toil. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract……………………………………………………...…………………………………….ii Dedication………………………………………………………………………………………...iv List of Figures…………………………………………………………………………………..ix Acknowledgments………………………...……………………………………………………xxii Vita…………………………………………………………………………………………….xxiii Introduction……………………………………………………………………………………..…1 Chapter 1. Padua: Historical and Intellectual Context…………………………………………...39 Liberation and Return to Commune (1256-1318)…………………………………….…42 Commune Demise and Rise of the Carrara (1310-1338)………………………………...44 Carrara Dynasty to Venetian Dominance (1338-1405)……………………………….....45 Paduan Intellectual Culture: (c. 1250-1400)……………………………………………..47 Petrarch and the “Studia Humanitatis”…………………………………………………..64 Pier Paolo Vergerio and Rhetoric of the Court…………………………………………..80 Florentine Humanism in Paduan Context……………………………………………..…88 Chapter 2. Alberti in Padua I: Intellectual Education…………………………………………....93 Gasparino Barzizza: Pedagogy and Virtue in Renaissance Padua……………………….95 Barzizza, the Studium and his Private School…………………………………………....98 Alberti’s Facility as a Student…………………………………………………..101 Alberti’s Courses with Barzizza………………………………………………………..103 Alberti and Inventio………………………………………………………….…111 Guarino da Verona and Lucian…………………………………………………………115 v Barzizza, Alberti and Imitatio…………………………………………………………..120 Vittorino da Feltre and Science………………………………………………....126 Chapter 3. Alberti in Padua II: Alberti’s Visual Education…………………………………….134 Antique Sources………………………………………………………………………...136 Giovanni Dondi del Orologio and Text on Monuments......................................138 Carrara Medals and Pisanello…………………………………………………..143 Giotto to Altichiero……………………………………………………………………..145 Giotto...................................................................................................................147 Hypothesis for Giotto only……………………………………………...151 Alberti and Cennini……………………………………………………..153 Painting and Imitatio.…………………………………………………...156 Cappella Scrovegni: Background………………………………………161 Cappella Fame: Giotto and Humanism…………………………………164 Altichiero……………………………………………………………………….170 Palazzo Carrarese and the Lost Frescoes……………………………….171 Sala Vivorum Illustrium and the De viris illustribus…………………...174 St. James Chapel………………………………………………………..184 Portraits………………………………………………………………....186 Chapter 4. Alberti in Bologna…………………………………………………………………..191 Intellectual Context……………………………………………………………………..192 Alberti and the University of Bologna………………………………………….192 Humanism and the University………………………………………….195 Alberti and the University……………………………………………....199 Quadrivium and Mathematics…………………………………………..200 vi Alberti’s Historiography of Perspective………………………..204 Bacon and Painting……………………………………………..205 Pelacani, Alberti and Mathematics……………………………..210 Alberti’s Early Writings………………………………………………...213 Visual Context………………………………………………………………………….220 Nicola Pisano…………………………………………………………………...232 Professor’s Tomb and Manuscript Illumination……………………………..…234 Jacopo della Quercia and San Petronio………………………………………...236 Alberti and Northern Europe…………………………………………………...237 Portraiture and Jan Van Eyck………………………………………………..…240 Chapter 5. Alberti in Rome……………………………………………………………………..245 Intellectual Context……………………………………………………………………..247 Alberti and the Church………………………………………………………….247 The Topography of Rome………………………………………………………249 Historia in Intellectual Context………………………………………………...253 Visual Context: Historia………………………………………………………………..257 Antique Sources………………………………………………………………...257 Post-Antique Visual Sources…………………………………………………...263 Pre-Thirteenth Century Influence………………………………………265 Pietro Cavallini…………………………………………………………266 Gentile and Pisanello…………………………………………………………...270 Ghiberti…………………………………………………………………………271 Masolino and Masaccio in Rome…………………………………………….…274 vii Polemic on Masaccio the Painter……………………………………….275 Masolino………………………………………………………………..278 Donatello………………………………………………………………………..281 Alberti’s Criticism and Counsel………………………………………………...289 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………...293 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………...….296 Images…………………………………………………………………………………………..332 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 0.1. Mateo di Pasti, Medal of Leon Battista Alberti, 1450-55, bronze, British Museum, London……………………………………………………………………….332 Figure 0.2. Donatello, St. George, c. 1416, marble relief for the Armorers’ and Sword Makers’ Guild niche of the Orsamichele, 39 x 120 cm, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence……...333 Figure 0.3, St. George, detail predella, c. 1416, marble relief, 39 x 120 cm, Museo Nazionale del Bargello, Florence………………………………………….……………334 Figure 0.4. Donatello, Feast of Herod, c.1423-27, gilt bronze panel, Baptismal Font Baptistery, Siena……………………………………………………………………………..…335 Figure 0.5. Lorenzo Ghiberti, Eastern Door of Florence Baptistery, 1425-52, bronze with gilding, 599 x 462 cm, Baptistery, Florence……………………………………………………336 Figure 0.6. Masaccio, Trinity, 1425-28, Fresco, 667 x 317 cm, Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence…………………………………….…………………………………………337 Figure 0.7. Pisanello, Medal of Vittorino da Feltre, 1446, bronze, Private Collection………...338 Figure 0.8. Enrico Marengo (Heinrich Meyring)?, Statue of Francesco Barbaro, c. 1714, Church of Santa Maria del Giglio, Venice……………………………………………………...339 Figure 0.9. Unknown Artist, Antonio Beccadelli, 1754, oil on canvas, 26 x24 inches, Sala del Consiglio, Retoratto, Bologna……………………………………………..…………..340 Figure 0.10. Provincial Roman Altar (after neo-Attic model from Callimachus, later 5th century B.C.E.), 1st/2nd century C.E., Museo Civico, Padua………….………………..……....341 Figure 0.11. Jacopo Bellini, Drawings of Roman Tombs and Altars, 1430’s?, Musée du Louvre, Paris……………………………………………….………………………..342 Figure 0.12. Provincial Roman Funerary Altar, 1st/2nd century C.E., Museo Civico, Padua, and Jacopo Bellini, detail Tomb with Inscription and Maenads, 1430’s, Musée du Louvre, Paris...343 Figure 0.13. Meleager/Calydonian Hunt, Roman sarcophagus, late 3rd century C.E., Woburn Abbey, Bedfordshire……………………………………………………………………………344 Figure 0.14. Pisanello, Portrait Medal of Lionello d’Este, Marchese of Ferrara, 1441, bronze, British Museum, London………………………………….......……………………….345 Figure 0.15. Marcus Setus, Medal of Francesco Il Vecchio “FRANCISCVS SENIOR DE CARRARIA D PAD,” 1370s?, bronze, New York, American Numismatic Society…………..346 ix Figure 0.16. Marcus Setus, Carrara portrait medal, reverse, Carrara coat of arms, “QVI SVM CIVI BENI REX IT, AN XXXVII MVIIII D V,” 1370s? bronze, New York, American Numismatic Society…………………………………………………………………………….347 Figure 0.17. Portrait Medal of Francesco Novello da Carrara, obverse, “FRANCISCVS IVNIOR DE CARR VIII PATAVII DI ANN MCCCXC,” c. 1390, bronze, New York, American Numismatic Society…………………………………………...…………………….348 Figure 0.18. Portrait Medal of Francesco Novello da Carrara, reverse, Carrara coat of arms, “NECAT AN MCCCC VI DIE XIX IAN,” c. 1390, bronze, New York, American Numismatic Society…………………………………..……………………………..349 Figure 0.19 Parri Spinelli, 1400 copy of Navicella (lost) by Giotto di Bondone, 1305-1313, pen