Mask and City: Leon Battista Alberti and the Theatrical Condition of Architecture

Abstract

The article examines the theatrical condition of Leon Battista Alberti's thought. To achieve this, it approaches the texts within the Albertian corpus where this condition is most clearly manifested, particularly the sections dedicated to theater in the treatise De Re Aedificatoria, as well as the entirety of his seminal work Momus. These texts, revealing Alberti's dual condition, characterized by his penchant for masks and simulation, challenge the monolithic portrait presented by certain canonical interpretations of the Renaissance architect. They allow us to interpret his buildings as components of a larger project: fragments of an implicit urban model. The article articulates this model, portraying it as a strategy of intervention within the city where the theatrical emerges as a central concept.