Rhetoric and architecture: De re aedificatoria by Leon Battista Alberti

Abstract

The link between rhetoric and architecture takes particular relevance in the ten books of De re aedificatoria, by Leon Battista Alberti (1404-1472). For Alberti, architecture should be, first of all, a guide for behaviours. More precisely, his appealing to classical rhetorical formulas in the theory of construction tends to redraw the purposes of architectural art, whose “rationality” must be transmitted to the spectator-citizen. Indeed, if the technical aspect of construction resides in the artifex plan, its result allows the emergence of a virtuous order, which moves from the conformation of the building to his contemplation and occupation. That’s the reason why, as we analyse in this paper, Leon Battista Alberti reflects in De re aedificatoria, not only on the link between art and nature, involving the concept of imitatio, electio, pulchritudo and ornamentum, but also manifests the necessary association between the aesthetic and moral attributes of the construction.