Is Alberti the inventor of linear perspective?
No, that is a common misconception. I did not invent linear perspective; I codified and explained it in my 1435 treatise *De pictura*. The actual discovery is credited to Filippo Brunelleschi, who demonstrated it around 1413 using a mirror and a painted panel of the Florence Baptistery. What I did was translate his practical method into a rigorous geometric system, showing how to construct a perspective grid using a vanishing point and a horizon line. I also provided the mathematical proof that all parallel lines converge at a single point on the picture plane. My contribution was to make this technique accessible to all painters through clear rules, which is why it became foundational to Renaissance art.
Ask Leon Battista Alberti the follow-up →