A HUMANIST PROGRAMME FOR THE IDEAL PAINTER: PREPARING THE HUNGARIAN EDITION OF LEON BATTISTA ALBERTI'S ON PAINTING

Gábor Hajnóczy

doi:10.1556/ahista.42.2001.1-4.9

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Acta Historiae Artium Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae

Volume/Issue:: Volume 42: Issue 1-4

A HUMANIST PROGRAMME FOR THE IDEAL PAINTER

PREPARING THE HUNGARIAN EDITION OF LEON BATTISTA ALBERTI'S ON PAINTING

Author:

Gábor Hajnóczy

Gábor Hajnóczy Chair of Art History, Catholic University Péter Pázmány, H-2087 Piliscsaba, Egyetem u. 1. Post Box 1.

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Pages:: 117–128

Online Publication Date:: 01 Mar 2001

Publication Date:: 01 Mar 2001

Article Category:: Research Article

DOI:: https://doi.org/10.1556/ahista.42.2001.1-4.9

Keywords:: Theory of painting; Leon Battista Alberti

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Available only in print. Until 2020, Acta Historiae Artium was published in print only, with basic information on its contents accessible on the website. Online articles have been available since Volume 62 (2021).

Summary

The paper discusses the theoretical and practical issues encountered during the preparation of the Hungarian edition of Leon Battista Alberti's 1435/36 treatise On Painting. It considers each of the themes the humanist author deemed important to discuss in respect of the theory of art and a painter's learning. The first theme is the basically rational theory of pictorial creation: perspective. In connection to the new concept of space that evolved in painters' practice at the time, this means a geometrical abstraction of vision and a method based on this, which implied a total break with the mediaeval optical-epistemological study of perspective. The second subject is the work of art. Alberti divides painting in three parts, namely: drawing, composition and lighting (colouring). The new element in the division is composition, which is an aesthetic category of rhetorical origin. In his theory of colours, Alberti, in a rather individual way, differentiates between four primary colours – red, green, grey, blue – in connection with the four basic elements – fire, water, earth, air –, making it have a speculative and mediaeval character. Finally, the third theme is the artist himself. According to Alberti's theory the painter is well-versed in the liberal arts, a learned intellectual, a pictor doctus. His knowledge is complemented by virtue. In Alberti's view the most important values for a painter are reason (ratio) and virtue (virtù). The Hungarian edition attempts to resolve the problem of the authentic text of the treatise by creating a kind of synthesis between the Latin and the Italian version.

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Acta Historiae Artium Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae

Print ISSN:: 0001-5830

Online ISSN:: 1588-2608

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Acta Historiae Artium
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