Leon Battista Alberti. Façade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence. Photo By Rufus46. CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The first of our artists whose life and times are celebrated in Watermill bedroom names: 1. Alberti***

Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) was an extraordinary Renaissance polymath: architect, artist, author, mathematician, linguist, philosopher, poet, – oh! and cryptographer.

Cryptography, as you know, is the art and science of enciphering and deciphering messages in secret codes. Nowadays, it’s also a computerised process used by banks and businesses to try to keep our personal information safe. (What you think of modern cryptographers might be gauged on how often you’ve forgotten your PIN or Memorable Information).

Portrait of Leon Battista Alberti. By an artist of the Florentine School (1600-1650). Uffizi Gallery, Florence. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Alberti’s Santa Maria Novella façade: innovation, harmony and Humanist ideals

Leon Battista Alberti. Façade of Santa Maria Novella, Florence. Commonists, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

Although Alberti was a polymath, most people remember him as an architect, particularly for the elegant, soaring façade of the Santa Maria Novella church in Florence. (Actually, to be precise, Alberti designed the upper part of the façade: the Gothic arches, intended to be to be filled with sarcophagi, were built in 1360).

The most striking part of the design is the enormous scrolls, in a flattened S-shape. While they echo the volutes of the classical Ionic order, the design is innovative and unprecedented (there are no classical sources). The scrolls solve a longstanding architectural problem: how to move from wide to narrow storeys. Soon similar scrolls were appearing on churches all over Italy.

Leon Battista Alberti. The upper façade of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Detail. Quinok, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Alberti’s whole upper façade is a celebration of the humanist ideals of harmony and proportion. The combined façade fits into a square; and many other squares are repeated in the design. It’s all highlighted by picking out architectural details in travertine stone, contrasting with the white marble background (below).

Leon Battista Alberti. The upper façade of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Detail. Quinok, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Della Pittura and the spread of linear perspective

Even more influential than the facade was Alberti’s book Della Pittura (On Painting 1435),which is firmly grounded in mathematical principles. It spread the word on new techniques such as linear perspective, enabling artists faithfully to represent the three-dimensional world in two-dimensional paintings.

The discovery of the techniques of linear perspective was made by Filippo Brunelleschi in the early 15^th century, but Alberti’s writings brought it to a broader audience. He graciously dedicated the book to Brunelleschi.

Leon Battista Alberti, Diagram showing perspective lines leading to a vanishing point in Della Pittura. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

***Who wants a number on the bedroom door when they could be staying in Botticelli, Bronzino or Brunelleschi? Or Gentileschi, Ghirlandaio or Ghiberti? Or one of another half-dozen famous Italian artists, from Alberti to Vasari?

Some years ago, we decided to switch from numbers to names in each of our rooms. They celebrate famous Italian artists, mainly from the Renaissance and mainly men, because (a) the early Renaissance is our favourite artistic period and (b) because few women were painting professionally in those days, and even fewer have become famous.

At Lois’ insistence we included Artemesia Gentileschi on our list a few years ago, and in 2026 we have introduced Sofonisba Anguissola, despite her tongue-twisting name.