In 1435, he began his first major written work, "Della pittura", in which, inspired by the burgeoning of pictorial art in Florence in the early 15th century, he analyses the nature of painting and explores the elements of perspective, composition and colour.
Odlikoval se je kot pisatelj, ko je bil še otrok v šoli in pri starosti dvajset let napisal igro, ki se je uspešno uvrstila kot prava klasična literatura.