De Pictura

De pictura (English: "On Painting") is a treatise written by the Italian architect and art theorist Leon Battista Alberti. The first version, written in vernacular Italian in 1435 under the title Della pittura, was for a general audience. The Latin version, the De pictura of 1439–41, was more technical and intended for scholars. The work is the first in a trilogy of treatises on the "Major arts" which had a widespread circulation during the Renaissance, the others being De re aedificatoria ("On Architecture", 1454) and De statua ("On Sculpture", 1462).

Alberti was a member of Florentine family exiled in the 14th century, who was able to return in Florence only from 1434, in the following of the Papal court during the Council of Florence. Here he knew contemporary art innovators such as Filippo Brunelleschi, Donatello and Masaccio, with whom he shared an interest for Renaissance humanism and classical art. Alberti was the first post-classical writer to produce a work of art theory, as opposed to works about the function of religious art or art techniques, and reflected the developing Italian Renaissance art of his day.

Book I: a simple introduction for young boys, in preparation for studying painting

Book II: a survey of types of painting for teenage trainees in a workshop

Book III: advice to the adult painter on how to perfect his skill

De pictura aimed to describe systematically the figurative arts through "geometry". Alberti divided painting into three parts:

The treatise contained an analysis of all the techniques and painting theories known at the time, in this surpassing medieval works such as The book of Art by Cennino Cennini (1390). De pictura also includes the first description of linear geometric perspective around 1416; Alberti credited the discovery to Brunelleschi, and dedicated the 1435 edition to him.

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