Main content
Course: AP®︎/College Art History > Unit 5
Lesson 3: Renaissance Art in Europe- Workshop of Campin, Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece)
- Brunelleschi, Pazzi Chapel
- Van Eyck, The Arnolfini Portrait
- Donatello, David
- Donatello, David
- Alberti, Palazzo Rucellai
- Alberti, Palazzo Rucellai
- Fra Filippo Lippi, Madonna and Child with two Angels
- A celebration of beauty and love: Botticelli's Birth of Venus
- The Last Supper
- The Last Supper
- Dürer, Adam and Eve
- Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
- Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel
- Studies for the Libyan Sibyl and a small Sketch for a Seated Figure (verso)
- Studies for the Libyan Sibyl (recto); Studies for the Libyan Sibyl and a small Sketch for a Seated Figure (verso)
- Last Judgment (altar wall, Sistine Chapel)
- Raphael, School of Athens
- Raphael, School of Athens
- Grünewald, Isenheim Altarpiece
- Pontormo, The Entombment of Christ
- Cranach, Law and Gospel (Law and Grace)
- Titian, Venus of Urbino
© 2024 Khan AcademyTerms of usePrivacy PolicyCookie Notice
Alberti, Palazzo Rucellai
By Christine Zappella
Humanist architecture for a private home
By 1450, the skyline of Florence was dominated by Brunelleschi's dome. Although Brunelleschi had created a new model for church architecture based on the Renaissance’s pervasive philosophy, Humanism, no equivalent existed for private dwellings.
In 1446, Leon Battista Alberti, whose texts On Painting and On Architecture established the guidelines for the creation of paintings and buildings that would be followed for centuries, designed a façade that was truly divorced from the earlier medieval style, and could finally be considered quintessentially Renaissance: the Palazzo Rucellai. Alberti constructed the façade of the Palazzo over a period of five years, from 1446–51; the home was just one of many important commissions that Alberti completed for the Rucellais—a wealthy merchant family.
Three tiers
Like traditional Florentine palazzi, the façade is divided into three tiers. But Alberti divided these with the horizontal that run across the façade. The first tier grounds the building, giving it a sense of strength. This is achieved by the use of cross-hatched, or stone that runs across the very bottom of the building, as well as large stone blocks, square windows, and portals of construction in place of arches.
The overall horizontality of this façade is called “trabeated” architecture, which Alberti thought was most fitting for the homes of nobility. Each tier also decreases in height from the bottom to top. On each tier, Alberti used pilasters, or flattened , to visually support the entablature. On the first tier, they are of the . On the second and third tiers, Alberti used smaller stones to give the feeling of lightness, which is enhanced by the rounded arches of the windows, a typically Roman feature. Both of these tiers also have pilasters, although on the second tier they are of the Ionic order, and on the third they are Corinthian. The building is also wrapped by benches that served, as they do now, to provide rest for weary visitors to Florence.
The Palazzo Rucellai actually had four floors: the first was where the family conducted their business; the second floor, or piano nobile (reception room), was where they received guests; the third floor contained the family’s private apartments; and a hidden fourth floor, which had few windows and is invisible from the street, was where the servants lived.
The loggia
In addition to the façade, Alberti may have also designed an adjacent loggia (a covered colonnaded space) where festivities were held. The loggia may have been specifically built for an extravagant 1461 wedding that joined the Rucellai and Medici families. It repeats the motif of the pilasters and arches found on the top two tiers of the palazzo. The loggia joins the building at an irregularly placed, not central, courtyard, which was probably based on Brunelleschi‘s Ospedale degli Innocenti.
The influence of ancient Rome
In many ways, this building is very similar to the Colosseum, which Alberti saw in Rome during his travels in the 1430s. The great Roman amphitheater is also divided into tiers. More importantly, it uses architectural features for decorative purposes rather than structural support; like the engaged columns on the Colosseum, the pilasters on the façade of the Rucellai do nothing to actually hold the building up. Also, on both of these buildings, the order of the columns changes, going from least to most decorative as they ascend from the lowest to highest tier.
The Palazzo Rucellai has many features in common with the Palazzo Medici (below), which was constructed a few years before, not far from Alberti’s building. The Palazzo Medici is also divided into three horizontal planes that decrease in heaviness from bottom to top.
But there are subtle differences that betray the intents of the patrons. The bottom tier of the Palazzo Medici, built for Cosimo il Vecchio de’ Medici by Michelozzo, resembles the stone of the Palazzo Vecchio (below), the seat of political power of Florence, with which Cosimo intentionally wanted to associate himself. It also employs the same type of windows.
Because Michelozzo used this medieval building as a model, whereas Alberti looked to ancient Rome, the Palazzo Medici is not truly Humanist in its conception and lacks the geometric proportion, grace, and order of the Palazzo Rucellai. The top tier of the Palazzo Medici is almost entirely plain, whereas Alberti continued to use architectural features for ornamentation throughout his design.
The main difference between the Palazzo Rucellai and other palazzi was Alberti’s reliance on ancient Rome. This may have reflected Giovanni Rucellai’s pretensions for his family. Rome was the seat of the papacy, and though Rucellai was not a cleric, he claimed to have descended from a Templar. The Palazzo Rucellai went on to influence the design for the homes of many clerics, such as the famous Palazzo Piccolomini that was built for Pope Pius II in Pienza by Bernardo Rossellino.
Want to join the conversation?
- so why this not completed?(10 votes)
- No, the building wasn't completed. From what I could find, it's because perhaps they were planning on adjoining another property but it never happened. Could be wrong this(4 votes)
- How do Alberti's treatise and his architecture correlate?(4 votes)
- What did Alberti believe should drive architectural design and What did he consider the ideal plan for a church(4 votes)
- Isn't piano nobile the floor of the bedrooms with big windows?(2 votes)
- It's interesting how the invention of elevators has transformed the prime space in multistory residences from the second floor to the top floor(s).(4 votes)
- The second paragraph discusses the three "bays" of the palace, however a bay is a unit that subdivides a facade along its width/length not height (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/56632/bay; for instance, an entrance bay would be the vertical unit of a door on a ground floor, and the windows above it on the subsequent floors). Storeys would perhaps be more appropriate?(3 votes)
- When were glass windows first used? Were they in this building? If not, what then?(2 votes)
- windows themselves have been used since prehistory with clerestory lighting, I believe that those windows used a glass-like pane of crystalline gypsum (a clear linear mineral)(3 votes)
- How does the Palazzo Rucellai display qualities or humanism architecture?(2 votes)
- The pilasters used in the middle story are more composite than ionic, which deviates from the colosseum model. This was probably done to highlight its importance as the piano nobile.(2 votes)
- bywheeyh dudbb udny7e83 4r7(1 vote)