RUCELLAI, PALAZZO

early Renaissance palace in Florence, designed c. 144570 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 Cancellerio (later the Papal Chancery, in Rome).