Customer Reviews
Hugely Influential Text on Renaissance Painting - By: Mrs. K. A. Wheatley, 09 May 2008 
This is effectively a textbook for Renaissance artists. It is split into three sections, the first dealing predominantly with issues of composition & perspective, the second with light & shade, colour & the artist's duty to his art & his public, & the third predominantly with what qualities one must bring to the job of being an artist.
If you are only loosely interested in art as a pragmatic practice, & you don't have some mathematical knowledge which will steer you through the first section it may be rather impenetrable in places. I am one of these people & found myself reallly struggling with the first section.
It is however fascinating as a glimpse into the mindset of a humanist scholar & as someone practicing on the cusp of what will become the Renaissance. I picked this up because I am studying Leonardo Da Vinci & this book was massively influential on him. This is what is most fascinating to me, that the things which Leonardo did & propounded, & which many people judge him as a genius for, were already laid out in essence in this book, written many years before.
This is a short book, coming in at 96 pages, with thirty odd of those taken up by the introduction. The introduction however is very valuable & to me the most illuminating part of the book, one which certainly gave me enough impetus to keep going with the actual text itself. The introduction is written by Martin Kemp, a world renowned expert on Leonardo Da Vinci. His writing is fluent, interesting & illuminating.
great read! - By: MR S S BHACHU, 11 Feb 2005 
This book is a great read as well as a wealth of knowledge.
Smalll enough to fit in your pocket, the book takes you through different periods in time, exploring different artists & their styles of paintings.
A great book to take with you to the galllery & alike....or even just to boost your art knowledge so that you can show off to your friends & actuallly look like you know about art.
Also, a great help for people studying art and/or the history or art.
Brilliant for art history students - By: alistair@freemail.com.au, 17 Jan 2001 I ordered the book after it cropped up in my research for a university assignment on renaissance art techniques, I barely needed any other source material. Brilliantly written by Alberti, & translated like you wouln't believe. Never before have I seen a text that details alll the inner workings of a renaissance artists studio like this. A must for alll lovers of renaissance art, & essential for alll students of art history.
