Palazzo Rucellai

The Palazzo Rucellai, one of the pearls of Renaissance architecture, is located at the crossroads of the narrow Florentine streets of Via della Vigna Nuova, Via dei Palchetti and Via dei Purgatorio.

The design of the Palazzo Rucellai was developed by the great Renaissance architect Leon-Battista Alberti. During his lifetime, he became famous as an outstanding scientist-humanist, writer, author of the fundamental “Ten Books on Architecture”. True, the entire "architectural supervision" during the construction of the palazzo was not carried out by Alberti, but by another worthy architect - Bernardo Rossellino. This is due to the fact that Alberti, by occupation, was an abbreviation of the Roman Curia, he endorsed the papal epistles - a breve. This was his main “work”, and therefore in architecture he was more a theorist than a practitioner.

The palazzo was ordered by Alberti by his friend Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai, a merchant, a banker, a philanthropist, a Florentine patrician who was raising his clan to the Templars. The Palazzo was to demonstrate the growing influence of the Rucellai clan in the life of Florence.

It is known that on the site where the palazzo is now located, before its construction there were eight small buildings, most of which belonged to the Rucellai family. Alberti united them with a solid facade. It is this pseudo-antique facade that makes the palazzo famous: the house of Rucellai will be the first Florentine palazzo built on the principles of Renaissance architecture.

Alberti spent a lot of time in Rome and was a big fan of ancient architecture, thoroughly knew its principles and often used its elements in his own projects. For example, for the facade of the church Santa Maria Novella (Giovanni Rucellai was also the customer of this project) Alberti used the outlines of a classical triumphal arch with a pediment. The Palazzo Rucellai resembles another cult structure: in the design of its facade, the architect “quoted” the arches of the Colosseum.

Alberti admitted that for him there is no task more pleasant and fascinating than decorating walls with stone columns. In the Palazzo Rucellai, he was able to fully surrender to this hobby: the walls of all three floors of the building are divided by pilasters. Pilaster is also called a “flattened column”. It can have a structural load, serving to strengthen the wall, but its main function is decorative.

The facade of the Palazzo Rucellai consists of a whole system of pilasters - ledges of the wall, conventionally depicting columns. Pilasters, popular in antiquity, were used reluctantly and rarely in medieval architecture. They owe their triumphant return to architecture precisely to Leon-Battista Alberti, a big fan of the classic warrant.

The facade of the Palazzo Rucellai is sometimes called the "encyclopedia of architectural orders." The fact is that pilasters rhythmically dividing each of the three floors have different orders on each of them: the first floor is Tuscan, the second is ionic, and the third is Corinthian.

«In Florence of the 15th century, - writes art historian Irina Danilova in the book “The Italian city of the 15th century: Reality, myth, image,” - family prestige was expressed not in the number of floors of the palazzo (there were usually three of them), but in the number of portals and windows along the main facade facing the street or square".

From an architectural point of view, the Palazzo Rucellai is not located in the most advantageous place: it is sandwiched between neighboring buildings. To facilitate the appearance of the palazzo, Alberti resorted to an interesting trick: each of the subsequent floors of the building is lower in height than the previous one.

On the ground floor, Rucellai held his business meetings, the second floor was intended for receptions, and the living rooms were located on the third floor. There is also a hidden fourth floor (it is difficult to see from the street) with office space.

From the courtyard side, the Palazzo Ruccellai has covered loggia. Not everyone agrees that Alberti also designed the loggia, however, its leading facade elements — columns and arches — are repeated in its architecture. Presumably, the loggia was added in 1461 for a wedding, connecting two influential Florentine clans - Rucellai and Medici.