ence, although his pupil and collaborator,Bernardo Rossellino
(1409–1464), actually constructed the building using Alberti’s plans
and sketches. The facade of the palace is much more severe than that
of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi (FIG. 21-36). Pilasters define each
story, and a classical cornice crowns the whole. Between the smooth
pilasters are subdued and uniform wall surfaces. Alberti created the
sense that the structure becomes lighter in weight toward its top by
adapting the ancient Roman manner of using different capitals for
each story. He chose Tuscan(the Etruscan variant of the Greek Doric
order;FIG. 5-14or page xxviii in Volume II) for the ground floor,
Composite(the Roman combination ofIonic voluteswith the acan-
thus leaves of the Corinthian;FIG. 5-73or page xxviii in Volume II)
for the second story, and Corinthian for the third floor. Alberti mod-
eled his facade on the most imposing Roman ruin of all, the Colos-
seum (FIG. 10-1), but he was no slavish copyist. On the Colosseum’s
facade, the capitals employed are, from the bottom up, Tuscan, Ionic,
and Corinthian. Moreover, Alberti adapted the Colosseum’s varied
surface to a flat facade, which does not allow the deep penetration of
the building’s mass that is so effective in the Roman structure. By
converting his ancient model’s engaged columns (half-round
columns attached to a wall) into shallow pilasters that barely project
from the wall, Alberti created a large-meshed linear net. Stretched
tightly across the front of his building, it not only unifies the three
levels but also emphasizes the wall’s flat, two-dimensional qualities.
SANTA MARIA NOVELLAThe Rucellai family also commis-
sioned Alberti to design the facade (FIG. 21-39) of the 13th-century
Gothic church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. Here, Alberti took
his cue from a Romanesquedesign—that of the
Florentine church of San Miniato al Monte (FIG.
17-27). Following his medieval model, he de-
signed a small, pseudoclassical,pediment-capped
temple front for the facade’s upper part and sup-
ported it with a pilaster-framed arcade that in-
corporates the six tombs and three doorways of
the Gothic building. But in the organization of
these elements, Alberti applied Renaissance
principles. The height of Santa Maria Novella
(to the pediment tip) equals its width so that
the entire facade can be inscribed in a square.
Throughout the facade, Alberti defined areas
and related them to one another in terms of
proportions that can be expressed in simple nu-
merical ratios. For example, the upper structure
can be encased in a square one-fourth the size
of the main square. The cornice separating the
two levels divides the major square in half so
that the lower portion of the building is a rec-
tangle twice as wide as it is high. In his treatise,
Alberti wrote at length about the necessity of employing harmonic
proportions to achieve beautiful buildings. Alberti shared this con-
viction with Brunelleschi, and this fundamental dependence on clas-
sically derived mathematics distinguished their architectural work
from that of their medieval predecessors. They believed in the eter-
nal and universal validity of numerical ratios as the source of beauty.
In this respect, Alberti and Brunelleschi revived the true spirit of the
High Classical age of ancient Greece, as epitomized by the sculptor
Polykleitos and the architect Iktinos, who produced canons of pro-
portions for the perfect statue and the perfect temple (see Chap-
ter 5). But it was not only a desire to emulate Vitruvius and the Greek
masters that motivated Alberti to turn to mathematics in his quest
for beauty. His contemporary, the Florentine humanist Giannozzo
Manetti (1396–1459), had argued that Christianity itself possessed the
order and logic of mathematics. In his 1452 treatise,On the Dignity
and Excellence of Man,Manetti stated that Christian religious truths
were as self-evident as mathematical axioms.
The Santa Maria Novella facade was an ingenious solution to a
difficult design problem. On the one hand, it adequately expressed
the organization of the structure attached to it. On the other hand, it
subjected preexisting and quintessentially medieval features, such as
the large round window on the second level, to a rigid geometrical
order that instilled a quality of classical calm and reason. This facade
also introduced a feature of great historical consequence—the scrolls
that simultaneously unite the broad lower and narrow upper level
and screen the sloping roofs over the aisles. With variations, similar
spirals appeared in literally hundreds of church facades throughout
the Renaissance and Baroque periods.21-39Leon Battista Alberti, west facade of
Santa Maria Novella, Florence, Italy, 1456–1470.
Alberti’s design for the facade of this Gothic
church features a pediment-capped temple front
and pilaster-framed arcades. Numerical ratios are
the basis of the proportions of all parts of the
facade.Florence 567