Page "Leon Battista Alberti" Paragraph 36

* Some studies propose that the Villa Medici in Fiesole might owe its design to Alberti, not to Michelozzo, and that it then became the prototype of the Renaissance villa.

Maybe also that this hilltop dwelling, commissioned by Giovanni de ' Medici, Cosimo il Vecchio's second son, with its view over the city, is the very first example of a Renaissance villa: that is to say it follows the Albertian criteria for rendering a country dwelling a " villa suburbana ".

Under this perspective the Villa Medici in Fiesole could therefore be considered the " muse " for numerous other buildings, not only in the Florence area, which from the end of the 15th century onwards find inspiration and creative innovation here.