Leon Battista Alberti in Exile: Tracing the Path to the First Modern Book on Painting

Leon Battista Alberti emerged in 1435 with De pictura, the modern era's earliest discourse on Western art. Peter Weller challenges the popular notion that De pictura's compendium on lines, points, mathematics, composition, narrative, and portraiture is primarily the result of Alberti's return to Florence and his short exposure to its visual art.