ABSTRACT
Leon Battista Alberti composed several works which anticipate the Renaissance emblem. The advantages of prudent flexibility are an important theme in Western ethics, from Aesop's fable of the reeds through a host of Renaissance apologues often influenced by Alberti. In his extended emphasis, Alberti imagines a temple with two opposite walls of frescoed paintings. One wall displays images of virtues; and the other, vices. The scheme clearly pays tribute to the captioned seven Virtues and seven Vices of Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel. If Alberti's apprenticeship in sapiential literature was influenced by Greek archaic wisdom — the popular tale of Aesop and the recondite teachings of Pythagoras — his interest in visual imagery clearly reflect his experience of Italian art. Alberti's greatest contribution to the tradition of visual allegory is found in another dinner piece, Anuli, a work which survives in two manuscripts copies but is not assigned to any particular book of the Intercenales.
