Alberti's early architectural career is a good example of the gulf between the theory
and practice of
Renaissance architecture. He arrived at the court of the controversial mercenary and warlord of
Rimini, Sigismondo Malatesta, in the early 1450s, flushed with the literary success of his study of
the principles of architecture, On the Art of Building
(1452).
Alberti had been heavily influenced by the rediscovery of the Roman architect Vitruvius'
classical
study On Architecture. Vitruvius gave Alberti a detailed architectural
vocabulary that spanned
construction, function, and beauty of design. Alberti was particularly interested in Vitruvius' use
of
columns (Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian) and arches to express social status and power. For Alberti:
The principal ornament to any city lies in the
siting, layout, composition and arrangement of its
roads, squares and individual works; each must be properly planned and distributed according to
use, importance and convenience. For without order there can be nothing commodious, graceful
and noble.
It was this founding principle that drew a figure like Sigismondo Malatesta to Alberti.
Having
established social and political 'order' through military force, Sigismondo required the concrete
manifestation of grace and nobility to affirm his authority. Alberti, via the imperial Roman tradition
of
Vitruvius, seemed capable of providing all of this, and he was subsequently commissioned to
redesign the old brick church of San Francesco.
Drawing on classical models, Alberti designed a building that looked more like a classical
temple
than a Catholic Church—hence its name, Tempio Malatestiano.
Alberti collaborated closely with the builder and sculptor Matteo de' Pasti in encasing
the old
church in a classical shell of Istrian stone, marble, and porphyry. The facade was replaced by a
severe design that used Roman half-columns and arches borrowed from the triumphal arches of the
Emperors Augustus and Constantine, appropriate classical analogies for an ambitious condottiere
like Sigismondo. However, Alberti faced endless problems. He struggled to accommodate local
materials and existing medieval structures with his classical models, and lacked skilled workers
able to carry his vision into reality.
Sadly, also, his patron ran out of money leaving the building in 1468, as it now stands,
unfinished.
Commenting on one of Alberti's Mantuan churches, Cardinal Francesco Gonzaga complained
'I
could not tell whether he meant it to look like a church, a mosque or a synagogue'.
However, the international flavour of Alberti's classical style found favour with
aspiring imperial
clients far beyond Italy. In 1460 the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II wrote to Sigismondo to ask for the
services of Matteo de' Pasti. Mehmed was embarking on the building of the Topkapi Saray, which
as one commentator observed, was 'a palace that should outshine all and be more mervellous than
all preceding palaces in looks, size, cost and gracefulness.
The new style spread to Moscow and Budapest was adopted by the condottiere Frederico
da
Montefeltro for his ducal palace in Urbino.
