Impact of the Views in Alberti’s On Painting to the Status of Artists in the Early Renaissance and Subsequent Artist Schools in the Humanism Context
Authors: Shi Xiaoyuan 
Published: July 2022

Renaissance, the most prosperous era of art creation in the European country, encourages thousands of masters in different fields such as paintings, architecture, sculptures, philosophy, and politics to establish their own theories in their respective fields, which greatly promotes the development of western civilization. As the complete “Renaissance man”, Leon Alberti wrote his monograph On Painting to illustrate the principle of “true beauty” in different conditions. Most researchers and scholars choose to analyze Alberti by his views on the application of architecture, less on painting. However, in this paper, the author is going to analyze the painting principle, select and arrange some important points in his monograph On Painting into answers to several questions or topics in the chapter one below, dividing them into several levels and points, and analyze his influence and impact towards the later centuries, which is a gap and also innovative in the research field in Alberti’s art theory. The significance and purpose of this paper are that, only after knowing Alberti’s own art theory and its influences on the later art field, we could understand this important part of aesthetic developments and history, which is vital in defining “academy style” in arts. As a scholar who researches the classic history and art values himself, Alberti analyzes art history and theory in the past and proposed theories and art directing guidelines related to the classical art values of complete balance and beauty, which also responds to the Renaissance humanism movement. What’s more, his important art genre concept “historia” is about history (historical painting), and his theory and book itself influenced and brings a lot of differences to the art field in later centuries, which is the history changed in art styles and school the author research on. Moreover, illustrating the detailed analysis of Botticelli’s The Calumny of Apelles and Raphael’s School of Athens, this paper should be included in the category of art history and Renaissance history analysis. This paper is divided into two parts, including the literature review of the book On painting and the ideas proposed about art theory, artists’ social status, and stated principles of art. Also, Alberti’s ideas and concepts such as the most important one “historia” brings deep influence to the later art field, including the changing cultural focal point, increasing the status of artists, especially painters, restating the classical function of arts, and directing people to focus on great work instead of the genre scene. In these two parts, the author illustrates both Raphael’s School of Athens and Botticelli’s The Calumny of Apelles as examples in some parts of the analysis, in order to present a clear and detailed picture of the concrete theory. In the third part of chapter two, the author concludes from the reason and inner logic of the revolution and innovation in the art field Alberti brought and promoted, on the revival of the classical art values but also focuses on the humanism ideals, and use the conclusion to analyze the modern-day art situation we are in, and whether there is a turning point in the future art field nowadays.