The Term “Ornament” in the Renaissance
Following Vitruvius’ line of thought, the architect and theorist Leone Battista Alberti wrote in his work “De re aedificatoria” of 1436: “… In tota re aedificatoria
primarium certe ornamentum in columnis est.” (Libro 6, page 3). For Alberti, columns were thus a type of architectural ornament. He also defined figural wall painting as part of this architectural ornamentation.
Bernd Evers, Rainald Franz
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