Palazzo Rucellai

palace, Florence, Italy

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Article History

Palazzo Rucellai, early Renaissance palace in Florence, designed c. 1445–70 by Leon Battista Alberti for the Rucellai, a wealthy Tuscan mercantile family. Alberti’s overriding concern with balance and proportion is evident in his symmetrical treatment of the palace’s facade. The use of the three classical orders to indicate upward progression was inspired by the Colosseum at Rome. The Palazzo Rucellai, in turn, influenced such later buildings as the Palazzo della Cancelleria (later the Papal Chancery, in Rome).

This article was most recently revised and updated by Melissa Albert.