The Loggia Rucellai is an

Italian Renaissance The Italian Renaissance ( it, Rinascimento ) was a period in Italian history covering the 15th and 16th centuries. The period is known for the initial development of the broader Renaissance culture that spread across Europe and marked the trans ...

loggia in

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, Italy. It stands opposite

Palazzo Rucellai Palazzo Rucellai is a palatial fifteenth-century townhouse on the Via della Vigna Nuova in Florence, Italy. The Rucellai Palace is believed by most scholars to have been designed for Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai by Leon Battista Alberti betwee ...

in the Via della Vigna Nuova, and faces onto

Piazza de' Rucellai The Piazza de' Rucellai is a piazza in Florence, Italy, home to the Palazzo Rucellai and its loggia, both designed by Leon Battista Alberti Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, ...

. It was built by

Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai (1403–1481) was a member of a wealthy family of wool merchants in Renaissance Florence, in Tuscany, Italy. He held political posts under Cosimo and Lorenzo de' Medici, but is principally remembered for building Palaz ...

in the 1460s; it may have been designed by

Leon Battista Alberti Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, priest, linguist, philosopher, and cryptographer; he epitomised the nature of those identified now as polymaths. H ...

, but this attribution is disputed. Originally intended as a place for the Rucellai family to have weddings and other celebrations, it is now glazed and used as a shop.

History

The loggia was completed before 8 June 1466, the date of the wedding-feast of Giovanni's son

Bernardo Rucellai Bernardo Rucellai (11 August 1448 – 7 October 1514), also known as Bernardo di Giovanni Rucellai or as la, Bernardus Oricellarius, italic=no, was a member of the Florentine political and social elite. He was the son of Giovanni di Paolo R ...

and

Nannina de' Medici Nannina de' Medici (14 February 1448 – 14 May 1493), born Lucrezia de' Medici, was the second daughter of Piero di Cosimo de' Medici and Lucrezia Tornabuoni. She was thus the elder sister of Lorenzo de' Medici. She married Bernardo Rucellai ...

, the daughter of

Piero di Cosimo de' Medici Piero di Cosimo de' Medici (the Gouty), (Italian: ''Piero "il Gottoso"'') (1416 – 2 December 1469) was the ''de facto'' ruler of Florence from 1464 to 1469, during the Italian Renaissance. Biography Piero was the son of Cosimo de' Medi ...

and elder sister to

Lorenzo il Magnifico Lorenzo di Piero de' Medici (; 1 January 1449 – 8 April 1492) was an Italian statesman, banker, ''de facto'' ruler of the Florentine Republic and the most powerful and enthusiastic patron of Renaissance culture in Italy. Also known as Lorenzo ...

. At the feast, 500 guests were seated on a dais which occupied the loggia and the whole of the piazza and the street in front of Palazzo Rucellai.

References

{{Florence landmarks Loggias in Florence Buildings and structures completed in 1466