This translation first published by Phaidon Press 1972. Publishined in Peguin Classics 1991. Reprinted with revised Further Reading 2004.

Artist, architect, poet and philosopher, Leon Battista Alberti revolutionized the history of art with his theories of perspective in 'On Painting' (1435). Inspired by the order and beauty inherent in nature, his groundbreaking work sets out the principles of distance, dimension and proportion ; instructs the painter on how to use the rules of composition, representation, light and colour to create work that is graceful and pleasing to the eye; and stipulates the moral and artistic prerequisites of the successful painter. 'On Painting' had an immediate and profound influence on Italian Renaissance artists including Lorenzo Ghiberti, Fra Angelico and Domenico Veneziano and on later figures such as Leonardo da Vinci, and remains a compelling theory of art.