Image and nature in Albertiʼs De pictura : A case of 'model inversion' ?

Taking its cue from the importance of the notion of "place" in the De pictura, this article develops the idea that Alberti, in proposing a 3D rectilinear grid as the key to successful imitation of nature, did not, as is commonly held, simply theorise what Brunelleschi had recently demonstrated with his two famous "perspective panels", but rather inverted what Brunelleschi had shown - switching as he did so the role of model from image to nature.