executed for Pope Nicholas V.,[1] who had intended to construct many similar ones for various parts of Rome, but death interposed to prevent him. In a small chapel to the Virgin, at the approach to the bridge of the Carraia, in Florence, is a work by Leon Batista, an altar-table, namely, with three small historical pictures, and certain accessories in perspective, which were much more effectually described by him with the pen than depicted with the pencil.[2] There is besides, a portrait of Alberti in the house of the Palla Rucellai family in Florence, drawn by himself with the aid of a mirror;[3] and a picture in chiaro-scuro, the figures of which are large. He likewise executed a perspective view of VTnice and St. Mark’s, but the figures seen in this work, which is one of the best paintings performed by Leon Batista, were executed by other masters.
Leon Batista Alberti was a man of refined habits and praiseworthy life,[4] a friend of distinguished men, liberal and courteous to all. He lived honourably and like a gentleman, as he was, all the course of his life, and finally, having attained to a tolerably mature age, he departed content and tranquil to a better life, leaving behind him a most honourable name.[5]
- ↑ The design, that is to say, for the work was not executed at the death of the pontiff. Milizia, Memorie degli A rchitetti^ vol. i, remarks with justice, that a handsome roof would be extremely welcome to shield the crowds perpetually passing over it from the rays of the sun.
- ↑ These paintings no longer exist.
- ↑ The fate of this portrait cannot be ascertained, but the head of Alberti, as existing on the bronze medallion of Matteo de’ Pasti is well known, a copy in silver may be seen in-the Biblioteque Royale of Paris, and it is figured in Mazzuchelli, Tresor de Numismatique, p. 127, pi. 27. Vasari, in his Ragionamenti, p. 93, declares that the portrait of Alberti was executed by himself in the “Palazzo Vecchio,'’ near to those of Marullus and Lascaris.
- ↑ The anonymous author of the life given, as we have said, in Muratori, and reproduced by Bottari, affirms that in the accomplishments proper to a gentleman, Leon Batista had few equals; his wit, as well as his dexterity in all physical exercises are also much lauded.
- ↑ He died in Rome, and was there buried, not in Florence, as some writers affirm. — See Niccolini Prose, &c.
