ABSTRACT
Cosimo de' Medici's imposing urban residence excited first resentment from his fellow citizens and then emulation, as Luca Pitti, Filippo Strozzi and others also chose the heavily rusticated look for their Florentine pnlazzi. This illustration shows the main Via Larga elevation of the Palazzo Medici. Bramante, a keen student of classical architecture, chose a centralised, Greek cross plan for the rebuilding of the most important church in western Christendom. Orsanmichele, now a church but formerly a grain market, occupies an important place in the history of Renaissance sculpture. The Florentine guilds were given responsibility for filling the fourteen niches around the exterior of the building. As in St Peter's basilica, liturgical East is actually at the western end of the building. The moses and Christ cycles are on the South and North walls respectively.
