Abstract

SVERLIJ, Mariana. The creation of a human home in Leon Battista Alberti's work. Prismas [online]. 2016, vol.20, n.1, pp.12-31. ISSN 1852-0499.

Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472) wrote multiple and diverse works that describe the way in which the man has lost his bond to his own land and community, and at the same time, also show different techniques, knowledge and behaviours that allow him to build a home. This is going to be the main thesis in this paper, which aims at analisying several methods that are employed by the author, and that lead to the creation of a human home. The advantages and disadvantages of the civic life, presented in the early dialogue Della famiglia and in the later De iciarchia, will be considered in detail. Special attention must be paid to Hans Baron's vision on the changing relationship between the author, Alberti, and the Florentine "civic humanism" from the beginning of the 5th century. An extended analysis of the embittered and ironic representation of human distress, depicted in writings such as Momus and the Intercenales, will also be truly relevant. Lastly, the tools and the knowledge on architecture will be carefully studied as well. The architecture is presented as the only possibility for the man to own a home based on the inherent achieved harmony (concinnitas), states Alberti in De re aedificatoria.

Keywords : Architecture; City; Family; Harmony; Distress.

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