Advances in manufacturing changed the subject matter covered in artists' manuals, but so did changes in art education. Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472), an Italian artist, architect, and writer, departed from workshop manuals such as Presbyter's by composing treatises for artists that focused on theories of art rather than recipes and tools. Alberti is shown here in a frontispiece to a 1565 edition of his treatise on architecture.
Alberti's De Pictura (On Painting), published in 1435, was the first published account of linear perspective. Alberti insisted that art should follow rules of perspective, proportion, and composition, and that knowledge of these theories should be acquired through intellectual training and experimentation.
Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) took up Alberti's advice to experiment and view his work as an intellectual exercise rather than a craft, keeping a set of notebooks tracking his own investigations of the natural world. Elements from these were published after his death as Trattato della Pittura (Treatise on Painting).
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) became aware of Alberti's work during a trip to Italy in 1494-1495. In 1525 Dürer published a manual that outlined his understanding of geometry and perspective, and in 1528, he published his own treatise on proportion.
Alberti, Leonardo, and Dürer's manuals were used in academies of art, and they also influenced self-taught artists such as Giulio Troili (c. 1613-c.1683). Using examples based on Alberti and Dürer, Troili designed his book on perspective to be a practical guide for students of drawing who lacked academic training.
These manuals influenced artists well into the twentieth century. Le Corbusier (1887-1965) was introduced to proportion and perspective at the École des Beaux-Arts. His Modulor system, introduced in 1950, was a measurement scale designed to create a harmonious architectural space based on human dimensions.
- Alberti, Leon Battista. La Architettura. Venezia: F. Franceschi, 1565.
- Leonardo, da Vinci. Treatise on Painting. London: Printed for I. and J. Taylor at the Architectural Library, High Holborn, 1796.
- Dürer, Albrecht. Les Quatre Livres. Arnhem: I. Iansz, 1613.
- Troili, Giulio. Paradossi per Pratticare la Prospettiva Senza Sapperia. Bologna: Per Gioseffo Longhi, 1683.
- Le Corbusier. The Modulor: A Harmonious Measure to the Human Scale Universally Applicable to Architecture and Mechanics. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1954.