Leon Battista Alberti

Leon Battista Alberti (February 18, 1404 April 20, 1472) was an Italian author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer, and general Renaissance humanist polymath: though he is often characterized as "architect" James Beck observes, "to single out one of Leon Battista's 'fields' over others as somehow functionally independent and self-sufficient is of no help at all to any effort to characterize Alberti's extensive explorations in the fine arts." Alberti's life was described in Giorgio Vasari's Vite de' pi eccellenti pittori, scultori, e architettori or 'Lives of the most excellent painters, sculptors and architects'.