Palazzo Rucellai, Alberti

Leon Battista Alberti was born in Genoa in 1404 and lived until 1472, and in many ways he was the successor of Brunelleschi in terms of Renaissance Architecture. While Brunelleschi developed a linear style, Alberti experimented with ideas of plasticity. Alberti was a theorist in the Humanist arts, he was well educated and lived a peripatetic life. He also wrote several treatises. The Ten Books of Architecture, written in 1452 in response to Vitruvius, differentiates Greek and Roman architecture. Alberti was not well versed in the actual process of building, he applied his studies and theories to the conceptual aspect. He was concerned with proportion, the orders, and ideal town planning. In 1455 the construction of the Palazzo Rucellai had begun.


Some things to note here...
-two squared off entrances used to recreate symmetry
-there is a more successful cornice, it simultaneously works as a frame for the top story and the entire structure
-featuring superimposed pilasters: orders used one above the other, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian in that order upwards, seen on the Colosseum
-ashlar masonry: hewn blocks of masonry laid in horizontal courses with vertical joints
-squared off double lights with lunette, divided by colonnette
-use of minor and major orders at the windows