Too high and spacious even for the chariots of a Roman triumph, it forms an inappropriate entrance to the modest vestibule of a Christian church.
Like Brunelleschi, Alberti applied his talents to the building of a palace in Florence that became a model to subsequent architects.

The Palazzo Rucellai retains many details of the mediaeval Tuscan style, especially in the windows divided by slender pilasters.

But the three orders introduced by way of surface decoration, the doorways, and the cornices, are transcripts from Roman ruins.

This building, one of the most beautiful in Italy, was copied by Francesco di Giorgio and Bernardo Fiorentino for the palaces they constructed at Pienza.
This was the age of sumptuous palace-building; and for no purpose was the early Renaissance style better adapted than for the erection of dwelling-houses that should match the free and worldly splendour of those times.

The just medium between mediaeval massiveness and classic simplicity was attained in countless buildings beautiful and various beyond description.